The Flowing Water's Whisperings
by Airheaded dude
Summary: Blood limits, a specific ability only present in a family or clan of Ninjas, now, Naruto learns of his family's bloodline as he grasps the heavens and proclaim himself as king.
1. Trigger

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, all rights and properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto

Hmm... This story had been bothering my mind lately, I just had to get it out

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To Uzumaki Naruto, time stood still, he could feel the effects of the five pronged seal eating away at his abdomen, where the seal of the nine tails was located. Now that his connection with the fox was messed up, Naruto looked at Orochimaru closely in the eye and said,

"Your stupid jutsu just made me flinch…" With that, he smirked and gave a vicious kick at the snake man's chin, forcing him to fly back, by the force flipping him in mid air, Naruto didn't stop there and continued to pursue the man, with speeds that didn't seem attainable by the blonde shinobi at first, he looked like a blur of orange with that much velocity covering him. He appeared just above the snake man and planted his fist right over his face forcing him to crash down on the forest floor below. Naruto soon gathered strange blue energy from his right hand and rolled down towards the floor gathering momentum, as soon as he was close enough, his right hand that gathered the dense blue energy ignited in flames as it surrounded the blonde's right hand with a thundering motion, he drove the burning fist straight at Orochimaru

"Nenshouken! (Burning Fist)"

The crater Orochimaru was in expanded, the ground gave away from the force of the impact making it larger and deeper. As soon as Naruto stood up, he jumped back and a visible dark blue energy was surrounding him, it looked like it was steaming out of the blonde. Naruto then gathered it at the palm of his hand, reducing it at the size of two twin orbs fitting snugly in his palm, he immediately pushed the orbs of energy down creating two huge beams of pure energy, engulfing the crater in a greater quantity of smoke and dust.

As the dust cleared, the organic mask that Orochimaru wore started to peel off, showing a paler complexion underneath it.

"That ability…" Orochimaru uttered as Naruto then concentrated the energy back into himself, increasing his speed and strength, he dashed down in a blur that even Orochimaru had trouble keeping up.

Naruto was already on him, with energy gathered at both his left hand and right foot.

"Kuuretsuken! (Air Rapid Punch)" In a blur of motion, Orochimaru could see Naruto's left hand seemed like to multiply pounding him one after another, Naruto then turned around giving Orochimaru a powerful kick sending him flying once again,

"Shippu Kyaku! (Storm Leg)" Said Naruto and a powerful crescent wave from Naruto's right foot. It tore through trees as it sped towards the snake Sannin. The Sannin grunted and gathered enough chakra to his feet as he jumped. Narrowly evading the strange technique, Naruto was already top on him, with that strange energy still activating…

"I knew it wasn't extinct…" Orochimaru chuckled silently, as he watched the blonde gather the energy from both his hands and clasped them together above his head, he shouted the name of the technique

"Kanadzuchi! (Hammer)" Said Naruto as he pounded Orochimaru who barely managed to get away by his special Kawarimi.

The piece of log was smashed to splinters, blowing it apart by the strange energy Naruto had, in a moment of weakness, a sword suddenly skyrocketed up towards Naruto's abdomen, piercing him and pushing him upwards, finally stopping at a thick branch, Naruto watched in shock as he felt his body go limp, something in his stomach was spreading throughout…

"I never would have thought that of all the possible people, you had that Kekei Genkai within you… Uzumaki Naruto…" Orochimaru said, Sasuke and Sakura widened their eyes in surprise,

"What?" Asked Sasuke, looking at Orochimaru and then to the pinned blonde on the canopy above, Orochimaru laughed ominously and said,

"Wielder of the ancient Kekei Genkai… Sasayaki no Ryuusui (The Flowing Water's Whisperings)" Orochimaru said as he let his tongue uncoil from the hilt of his sword, Kusanagi

"The ability to use energy and covert to aura of any form in battle with minimal chakra use as possible… The ultimate Taijutsu form… Such a rare gift…" Said Orochimaru as he then stretched his leg up directly to stare at Naruto's shocked expression, he looked at the boy eye to eye.

"A shame that I have no use of you, your ability would have been a great asset in my army…" He said but Naruto replied spat blood at him, his vision was getting blurry, his body was feeling limp and his heart was slowly stopping, he could feel the poison of the Kusanagi flowing into his veins, but he managed to reply to Orochimaru with a smirk

"F-Fuck you… Hebi-teme…" Naruto said as his head fell, Orochimaru distastefully grabbed Kusanagi by the handle and pulled it out from Naruto's stomach. The blonde fell from the treetops headfirst, not even much as a reaction from him as he fell down to the ground, his head hitting first.

"NARUTO!"

Then, darkness claimed him…

_Naruto's Psyche:_

_Naruto calmly walked the dim lit paths of the inner thoughts of his mind, as he stepped on the cobblestones of the sewers, he turned to his left and saw the giant cage of the Kyuubi no Youko._

_He stared at it with only an unreadable reaction and said, "What are you calling me here for again, furball?"_

"_**Say that again and I will personally see to it that I chew you from the insides once I'm out."**_

_The creature that told the threat appeared from the cage, the only thing that can be seen from it were the blood red eyes and the sharp unruly fangs curved into a sinister smile._

"_Your threats mean nothing, what are you going to mouth off now?" Asked the blonde, obviously not intimidated by the Nine Tailed Fox_

"_**The fact that you were beaten up by that pretentious snake lover! I could not understand how he beat you! Why are you this weak!?"**_

"_Here we go again…" Naruto said letting the fox rant on about how he can level mountains with a mere wisp of his tail, how undeserving of the treatment Naruto gets even though he still does so anyway just for him to live. To Naruto, it was the same old rant that got extremely tiring the first five times it was said, so the best thing he did was __let the ramblings go from one ear and go out from the other one. Meaning, he would not listen to this two hour filled lecture again._

"_**Are you even listening!?" **__The Kyuubi griped, Naruto merely nodded absentmindedly and let him continue…_

_Two hours passed and Naruto was getting bored, he sat near the cage and began meditating_

"_**If I were you I would focus more on the augmenting aspects of your bloodline."**_

"_Isn't that what I'm doing?" Asked Naruto as he then let the flow of his chakra go to his center,_

"_**You still haven't seen the full potential of that bloodline of yours, Sasayaki no Ryuusui as the name implies must move with the flow, it's malleable in a sense that it can be molded into different forms. Forming your aura**__** and manipulating it is easy, letting the aura change its form in response to your emotions is another, augmenting it in you is the real ability the Kenkei Genkai is known for. Your Bloodline limit literally can transform you."**_

"_Don't you think I know that? Augmenting my status combined with the Aura is difficult, only Alpha users were known to have done it, __I can't possibly access that style this early in my career."_

"_**What about your clones then? Don't they give you double the experience once you dispelled them?"**__ The Kyuubi asked,_

_Somehow, in a surge of brilliance and understanding, Naruto felt like face palming himself for that little factor._

"_**Ha! You mean you haven't realized that potential yet!? Don't forget your clones have the same ability as you do! Learning to augment your aura with your clones is definitely a match made in heaven for spammers like you!" **__To this, the Kyuubi grunted in triumph, Naruto merely countered with a well placed 'shut up'._

"_**Smooth, kit, real smooth" **__Was the fox's reply, Kyuubi one, Naruto zero._

Two Days later:

Sakura had been diligently guarding her teammates, she didn't know how grave the situation she was in until both her teammates went down for the count. Sasuke was having a very high fever as of late and Naruto had a seizure just this morning, which Sakura knew for a fact that it was prior to the head injury that the blonde had sustained, although she was glad Naruto was still breathing after that as not too many people survive falling to the ground head first, she was intrigued just how lucky the blonde was, that or there was something behind Naruto's resiliency and the fact that the stab wound in his abdomen nor the poison in his body didn't manage to kill him.

It wondered the pink haired teammate as she stared at the blonde, who was showing feelings of discomfort in his sleep moaning and sweating,

'_Must be having a nightmare…' _Thought Sakura as the blonde woke up abruptly, he panted heavily and cold beads of sweat poured from his forehead…

"Where am I? How long was I out?" Asked the blonde, Sakura replied to him accordingly,

"You're safe for now, you and Sasuke-kun were out of it for the last two days, I had to take you out of action for a while."

"Damn it! Because of that I was forced to reveal it! Damn that snake!" Naruto mentioned, getting up but he soon found himself on the ground again, that fall must have done a number on him as he felt nauseous.

"Too… Dizzy…" Naruto said this time, he got up, but slower. He tried to level his head for a moment and after a while, he could feel that he was ambulatory again, he let go of the hollow wall of the tree that served as his support and walked away from the sight, but not before unfurling a scroll, and then biting his thumb, inscribing the said scroll with multiple seals and then finally grabbing an ink and then doing the same thing again, he then wrapped it up, took another scroll and then gave both to Sakura.

"The first one is a Jutsu Scroll called, Tachikaze (Severing Wind).A weapon made with chakra seals that stored up a ton of my chakra, it's a simple nodachi in nature, but unlocking the seals makes it special. The second is a reverse summoning scroll, if there's a problem here you can't solve, just spread some of your blood on this sheet of paper and apply the chakra." Naruto stretched his legs for a bit to let it warm up

"Where are you going, Naruto?" Asked Sakura

"To go look for some scrolls." With that, Naruto let the dark blue energy surround him once again and absorbed it, vanishing from Sakura's view to nothing but a blur.

Naruto though, found it impossible to face Sasuke right now, what being his anger over the Uchiha about giving up the scroll to the enemy that gave no guarantee to let them live. It made him grit his teeth.

Sakura meanwhile diligently guarded the febrile Sasuke, who was showing facial grimace in his sleep, Sakura couldn't help but worry.

Naruto was out for the moment, trying to reclaim the lost honour he had by obtaining a scroll, to which Sakura would wish that the blonde would stop, it felt like he was abandoning them. But the stuff that he gave her somehow slightly reassured her of his concern to the team. And it also showed how much she did not know about Naruto.

This Naruto showed the ability to use Fuinjutsu (Sealing Arts). Since being together with the team, Naruto showed no ability whatsoever in that field of knowledge.

This Naruto showed tremendous Taijutsu ability. Sakura knew that Naruto was more of a Ninjutsu fighter, opting to spam and make do with the Shadow Clone Technique, rather than do one jutsu at a time, like Sasuke. Naruto never showed excellent Taijutsu forms, for all he's worth, Naruto was more of a street brawler than an orthodox fighter preferring balls to the wall movements rather than subtle changes that left no openings.

So it made Sakura wonder about the blonde teammate, just what was more that is he hiding?

With Naruto:

He was jumping from treetop to treetop, keeping in mind of his stealth abilities, letting himself bask in his aura bloodline, it made an imaginary circle around him, engulfing him silently as too mix his presence in the environment.

A common trick that many people fall for was an overwhelming sense of safety and security, even the most alert of shinobi can let down their guard once they feel that nothing's going to happen to them, it made them BLISSFULLY unaware. So Naruto took advantage of that human weakness with his ability, letting the serene aura coat the inner killing intent that held inside it, like a cocoon for a poisonous moth. It would be his most devastating weapon.

Naruto immediately stopped once he saw team eight hiding behind the bushes with them viewing the Sand Genin with the gourd, viciously destroy and tear his enemies apart.

"Let's go Gaara, we need to get to the tower as soon as possible." Mentioned the one that wore the hat

"NO! Mother still wants more blood…" Gaara said, as he turned his head into the bushes that kept team eight hidden

Gaara made a sinister smile.

Hinata shuddered under the boy's malicious smile, she was scared when he raised his hands slowly and sand began to follow its motion, Kiba broke her from fear,

"Let's get out of here… Now!" Said Kiba, but Shino remained calm

"There is no use, he has already discovered us, at least one of us has to stay behind and let the others know for back up, I'll stay here as I am the only one that can withstand against a person like him." Said Shino, the Aburame raised had let the movement of his destruction bugs commence. Flowing out of the holes from his body, the swarm started to surround the area above his head

"Go!" He commanded but Gaara was quick to react.

The sand loomed from the gourd of Gaara's back as it began to form like an ash cloud, moving formlessly in midair, with a quick glance over to the two running genin, Gaara quickly reacted and yelled,

"Like you'll get away!" His sand immediately whiplashed towards the two genins.

Naruto gritted his teeth as he clasped his hands together and formed the middle index cross…

As soon as the sand lashed out, Shino was quick to react and repelled the wave of particles by covering the area around him with bugs, however, somehow, Shino knew it wouldn't be enough, but to his saving grace, a myriad of intense white beams of light penetrated around the area of the sand user, it tore through the sand like paper and watch as the stunned Genin looked surprised, who had saved them?

"I knew you were trouble the moment you slipped under Sasuke's guard…" The voice mentioned, Gaara turned his head around to find a sign of this new assailant, until he felt a powerful force on his cheek forcing him to fly back.

The attacker managed to slip through his Suna no Tate and Suna no Yoroi that easily!

"WHAT!?" Kankurou yelled in surprise, never had he thought that the armour of sand could be penetrated by a leaf nin, a genin no less!

"You try killing these guys and I'll make sure you live with a tube on your throat for the rest of your life!" The assailant yelled, Gaara looked on at the blonde, who stood before him, his right hand still balled into a fist.

"It's that obnoxious brat three days ago!" Said Kankurou, Naruto merely scoffed and replied

"yeah and what up to you make up boy. As you can see, your deranged teammate over there is trying to kill one of my friends." Naruto pointed to Gaara, the red head gave a disturbed smile and then said,

"What's your name?" Gaara asked, tilting his head, Naruto replied,

"Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto then cracked his fists and then said to the red head

"Sabaku no Gaara…"

"That's a fitting name for your technique, mind showing it to me? Or is it that specific technique is only reserved for Ichibi's Jinchuuriki?"

To this Kankurou and Temari flinched, Naruto merely grinned at his statement,

"I can tell by the marking on his eyes and the sand that he controls that he's the host to Ichibi no Shukaku." He pointed to Gaara who frowned at his deduction, Naruto had been point on

"So what if you know?" Gaara uttered, sand began to rise around him and then above Naruto who merely stared Gaara at the eye.

"It isn't as if you could take me down with that information!" Gaara yelled, a smile etched across his demented face, the sand pouring down on the blonde, compressing to thin, long and sharp stakes

"Sabaku Kasui (Desert Spikes)" Gaara then swung his hands down and crossed each arm, and a rain of Desert spikes descended on the blonde, Naruto looked up and then towards Gaara, Blue energy seeping out of him and into his right hand cradling it with his left, he concentrated thoroughly and opened his eyes, sparks of lightning became visible around the blonde balling his hand into a fist, a loud screeching sound could be heard as the lightning tour through the sand that was attacking him

"It's not that I know about you that I could bring you down…" Said Naruto as he raised his right fist up and a powerful discharge of lightning escaped from him,

"It's the knowledge that I gained that I am able to communicate with you without problem! Because kindred souls are fated to understand one another! Raikouken! (Lightning Fist)" Naruto said running towards Gaara at blinding speeds, Gaara's Suna no Tate immediately reacted to the oncoming attack as it made a sphere around the red head. But Naruto's technique being lightning in Nature, made it very hard for the earth based sand to protect him. The technique tore Naruto's right sleeve as it ate away at the sand shield, the sphere turned to glass and shattered from the high temperature of the lightning, but unlikely enough, Naruto's arm remained intact whereas it would normally melt down. The one encased in the glass was fine as well, except for the bruise on his cheek.

"Damn! That's another jacket I won't be able to use again!" The blonde mentioned, he then tore his other sleeve to make it match, now his black elbow length sleeved T-Shirt overlapped the jacket's.

He then unzipped the jacket to let the spiral ornament of the hem of his black shirt flow freely, he then viewed the red head that got up and said, "As one of the nine, you understand it, right?"

Shino had to wonder, was Naruto a member of this so called, "Nine"?

"A jinchuuriki shall never bear love." Gaara recited, Naruto then continued,

"A jinchuuriki shall never know tears." This time both continued

"**And a Jinchuuriki shall never find solace even in death."**

Gaara then felt his eyelids drop. In fear of Shukaku taking over, the red head, immediately opened his eyes and then saw the one tail Shukaku trashing about in his cage, a chain and a collar reminding him of his status as a sealed object.

"**How did you know about the creed of the Jinchuuriki?" **The one tail asked, bellowing at the child in front of him

"The Jinchuuriki from Konoha… His chakra… It felt as if it resonated with mine…" Said Gaara, looking at his hands. The one tail looked surprised at first but then realized in understanding about the person that the one tail spoke

"**Only a selected few can do that… But then even I thought that those people were wiped out. It seems that even demons can make mistakes." **Mentioned Shukaku

Outside, Naruto looked at the expression that the Red head had, it looked like Gaara was in a trance, his eyes were up but his iris were covered by his eyelids, signifying his conversation with the one tail. The sudden fluctuation of Youki was proof of that.

"Access the true ability of the bijuu, the giver of all Bloodline limits!" Naruto said and chakra seemed to pour out of Gaara, but Naruto became suddenly aware as if nothing was going right about the ritual, as to his surprise, the gourd from Gaara's back began to disintegrate back to sand and then surround the red head's right hand, a large claw like hand appeared and a formless tail began to form.

"Shit! It's trying to fuse!" Naruto reacted quickly, grabbing one of his trusty scrolls and unfurled it, biting his thumb, he brandished the scroll and slid his bleeding thumb on the scroll immediately performing a large seal on the ground,

"Fuinjutsu: Jakuu Hoin! (Evil Void Sealing)"

Naruto clasped his hands together, and the chakra began swirling around the gigantic seal on the ground, Gaara trashed and screamed as he felt his chakra and the tailed beast's being suppressed back to him, as he felt the chakra leaking coming to a close, Naruto sighed in relief as Gaara fell on the floor, unconscious.

"The seal must have been faulty." Said Naruto as he was about to approach the unconscious Suna nin, he had heard of faulty seals on Jinchuuriki, mostly by the cause of the sealer and the sealed, Jinchuuriki were considered super weapons, a mishandling of the sealing ceremony would be devastating to the village they come from.

Which was why many would consider them more of a dangerous liability rather than a valuable asset.

'_I hate this kind of feeling!' _Naruto thought disdainfully as he bawled his hands into a fist, trying to control his inner rage.

The way people were treated like they were monsters, the way they shun people who had no control over their lives, the way they discriminate others of no wrong doings. It made him sick

"**Indeed, who truly is more of a demon? Us who were created by the miasma of your chakra or humans who have shunned, despised and killed their own kind? I wonder…" **

The Kyuubi chuckled darkly in his cage until Naruto mentioned him to shut up, Naruto knelt in front of Gaara to help him up but was stopped when he had felt the presence of the ANBU around him,

"Uzumaki-san, that chakra we felt… Was it yours?"

The one in the tiger mask asked, Naruto replied calmly, "Don't worry, the seal's intact, but the one from sand…"

Naruto then turned his head back to the red headed Jinchuuriki, the first that he has met.

"If Suna will display and represent their village with their Jinchuuriki, then I shall do so with mine. Tora-san, tell the old man that everything's alright and that I've decided to use ' it' in the exams." Said Naruto, the ANBU merely nodded and jumped away.

"As for you two…" Naruto then turned looked at the two still able ninjas from the sand. Temari placed a scroll on the ground, it was an earth scroll.

"We don't want a confrontation as of now, so as a tribute, I'm leaving you with an extra scroll we have when we encountered one team from Ame, take it. It's yours." Temari said, Kankurou had to grit his teeth and nod, if there was someone that could defeat Gaara, then most likely he would let the person had their way. He had no other choice.

Naruto took the heaven scroll with his left hand and turned his back. He then said to the two, "You know what the two of us were talking about earlier right?"

The two nodded and Naruto asked, "Tell me, who are you to Gaara?"

Temari looked at the blonde and then replied, "His siblings…"

Naruto thought about it in melancholy and then bowed his head, to some degree, he was jealous, "I see… Siblings… Out of the bad luck he's receiving… I guess he's always had a ray of hope close to him… I'm a bit jealous…"

Naruto voiced out, and immediately he walked with team eight and said, "Okay, you guys, come along with me for a moment, I can see that you three are exhausted, I can trust you in letting you into our hideout. But in return you must protect our downed teammate for a while till he recovers."

Shino had to readjust his sunglasses, a bargain for a service? No wonder it was too good to be true for the blonde to save them.

But if it weren't for Naruto, they would have all been dead. Dead from the sand of the Red Headed Genin from Suna.

"Very well, as team leader, I accept, but be advised that once Sasuke awakens, we shall take our leave."

Kiba protested though,

"Hey! Who said you were team leader!? And why do we have to agree with Naruto's bargain for that matter!?" Asked Kiba, Shino replied with his stoic voice

"For your first, it is because I am the most level headed and logical thinker of the team, for your second, because if not for Naruto, even I am not sure of what would happen in that battle." Said Shino, Kiba just stood flabbergasted, Hinata on the other hand, was grateful

She bowed to Naruto and said, "Thank you, Naruto-kun… Y-You saved us…"

Naruto scratched the back of his head though and replied, "Think nothing of it, Hinata, was just doing my job."

Team Seven:

It had been several hours since Naruto left, Sakura had began examining the Nodachi on the scroll and looked at the intricate design for each seal, the Nodachi's handle had was scarlet red, with black letters that Sakura suspected were the seals, peppered on the Nodachi itself, there were five in all, three on the left side of the handle, and two on the right, the blade was ivory white but in the glow of the sun, it shined in blue, the guard was a rare gold, it had the design of a flowing wind, like a sword planted with the small sword itself looking like it was planted straight up to the heavens

"As the name implied…" Sakura muttered, indeed, Tachikaze was the perfect name for it, the Severing Wind.

Sakura stood up, and practiced with the said blade, trying to apply the appropriate amount of chakra on to the blade, Sakura looked at how the blade reacted at the first trial, nothing happened, but when she touched one seal with her fingertips, it began to glow, the one that she touched first, the seal for fire, began to glow a blue light, albeit small.

That was weird; there was a reaction, but nothing too major… Did the chakra she applied not enough? Knowing the old Naruto that she had hung out as a team, it was highly possible. But now, when Naruto showed that attitude of total self reliance and critical thinking, it was not much of impossibility anymore.

'_I'm sure he would've put his faith in me if he gave me this, and __the other scroll he gave me was a fail safe.' _

Sakura then continued to practice more, unaware of the three people silently watching her from a distance.

Team 8:

"Those streams of light that you did back there… What were those?"

That question came from Kiba, Naruto was startled at that question and replied,

"Hijutsu, an ability of mine, few people know it, not even team seven are aware of that fact."

To this he averted his gaze from the Inuzuka. He looked down, and saw that they were nearing camp, as he was about to drop down, an outstretched hand stopped him,

"Stop." Shino mentioned, Naruto frowned,

"Something wrong?" was his question

Shino simply nodded and said, "Intruders."

Naruto then said, "Isn't it more of a possibility that we should appear first?"

Shino adjusted his sunglasses and said, "No, it would be best to remain in the darkness to determine the strength of the enemy, then we strike."

"Ah, so a counter ambush?" Asked Naruto and Shino nodded

"Heh, never doubt Shino about team tactics, the only guy I'll ever trust in battle plans aside from Shikamaru." Said Kiba

Hinata nodded, Naruto looked intently on the ground below

Sakura:

As soon as she saw the tiny squirrel, she had flung the kunai at it, scaring the little critter and running away, it shocked her for a moment, but she was glad she had thrown it, lest the little animal would have triggered her double layered trap.

A few minutes later, three sound genin appeared from the bushes, just as Shino suspected, Naruto was about to jump down, but stopped midway, maybe it was the right time to see Sakura's progress with the weapon he made, the Tachikaze.

"Haven't slept last night had you girl?" Asked the one with the bandage over his face and the sleeves overlapping his arms, he tilted his head to the side and said,

"It doesn't matter anymore because we want to fight Sasuke."

"You people! I know Orochimaru is the one behind controlling the strings, why are you requesting for a fight from Sasuke-kun now!? And what is that weird mark on his neck!?" Asked Sakura

With the word mark, Naruto's attention turned to the Uchiha, from the way chakra was starting to expel from Sasuke, Naruto deduced it quickly, frowning as he did so

"A seal…" Naruto muttered, Shino, Kiba and Hinata looked at him with a shocked expression, Naruto watched as the Oto nin began to dismantle the double layered trap Sakura had set up and then continued

"A mark that is induced by one person with chakra is a seal, that's the basic meaning, depending on the specification of a seal; it can augment and give people an extra set of abilities or could even amplify their physique, increased strength, speed, stamina etc… But a seal is also a double edged sword." Naruto said, as he crouched down and grabbed an empty scroll, he then grabbed a pen that was placed on his left pocket and began writing down countless scribbles and runic words and began to form a circle.

"A seal's primary purpose is to disrupt chakra in any form, making it the nullifying branch of the Shinobi Techs. It also means once placed on the body, the whole chakra system will be in chaos, the flow would be on stasis and activity in alternating moments that it becomes hard to control." Said Naruto finishing the writings on the scroll and then said to his teammates,

"If a seal were to do the opposite, the desired effects would double or triple than that of the normal soldier pill. If that were the case, then the leaking chakra could accelerate the work of cells within the body, causing the body to strain faster than it should be eventually decreasing the person's lifespan." Said Naruto seeing Sakura stand up, holding the Nodachi in a reverse grip and crossed her arms, she applied chakra to the handle of the blade and the five seals glowed, Sakura then touched the top seal on the left side of the handle, the seal of fire.

"Tachikaze… Help me… Please…" Sakura uttered and she was surrounded by a plume of smoke,

Kiba on the other hand was on edge, Naruto still made no move against the three Sound Genin below, the blonde made it prudent to watch for a while and assess the enemies abilities, completely siding with Shino

"So seals are that helpful and damaging to the body, but from what I've heard, there are far more abilities that a seal can do! And how do you know this much about Fuinjutsu anyway? Who taught you?" Asked Kiba

"That's just it; a seal is for storing and releasing anything that the user definitely desires, if you want to release an explosion, the seal converts the chakra into very volatile energy and combusts upon a certain amount of time. It's the basics of the basics in Fuinjutsu that the Gama sennin taught me."

Kiba couldn't believe what he was hearing though; Naruto was trained by Jiraiya of the Sannin! When? More importantly, for how LONG? It didn't seem too noticeable in the academy since they were students of the institution back then, Naruto was well, Naruto!

Hinata on the other hand though, grew her admiration for the blonde; it seemed his hard work was paying off ever since he turned genin.

Shino seemed pleased at the answer of the blonde, even if it was unreadable from him, "I am not surprised now that Naruto has such an excellent knowledge on Fuinjutsu, the best seal master in Konoha taught him."

Down below, the plume of smoke vanished, and out came Sakura, with a gloved hand on her left and the short sword on her right hand,

'_That's weird, the glove smells of gun powder and a bit rough, the sword seems slippery as well…'_Then it hit her, those components of the seal that she activated were perfect for this case.

Sakura dashed at the three genin, the short sword on the reverse handle, she jumped up and aimed for who seemed to be the leader of the group, she went for a stabbing motion, the one in the middle, the one wrapped in bandages, raised his right arm and a metallic sound could be heard, Sakura immediately jumped back, her footing landing on the bark of a tree, she then assessed her enemies carefully,

'_By the looks of it, my speed increased somewhat, I don't know how it happened but it feels it has something to do with the sword.' _She carefully climbed down, her enemies were still not moving, although Dosu was surprised by the pink haired girl's sudden speed

'_The one in the middle is the close rang__e specialist, the other two, I don't know, but I have to do something about them, they're a team so it must mean that they compliment each other well.' _Thought Sakura, as she then finally made her decision, she was going to attack the one with the head and face protector.

Sakura immediately swooped in low, to cut the man's legs, but Zaku was quick to react and jumped, immediately, he set his jutsu in motion and aimed his air holes downwards, point blank range to Sakura.

'_Shit…'_ Sakura only thought as time seemed to slow down, Sakura could only turn her gaze in shock, she was quick enough to get close, but in true combat, she was still far inexperienced…

"Konoha Senpuu! (Leaf Whirlwind)"

Immediately, a swirling green object collided with Zaku, sending him flying back. Zaku gritted his teeth and cursed loudly, someone denied him of his kill!

"I, Rock Lee, will not let you harm Sakura-san! I will protect her with my life!" Said the one in the green jumpsuit. By this time, Naruto stood up and adjusted his former jacket now turned vest.

"You three keep an eye out for Sasuke, I don't know how many more freaks are going after him, but I think I'll be joining the fray as well." Said Naruto who grinned and gave Hinata the newly finished scroll.

"If Sasuke starts to emit a weird chakra, toss it near his area and warn me beforehand." Hinata merely nodded, as Naruto took a deep breath and let the blue energy exit his system, he then gathered the flowing tendrils of energy into one spot, closing his hands together, the blue aura seemed to be vacuumed into one place as it slowly got bigger and bigger. It was time for his best technique to date

"Aura sufi-a! (Aura Sphere)" Naruto yelled, as he vanished in blue light, appearing right beside Dosu, who was surprised as well, the mummy like genin turned his head around, and could see that a large ball of pure chakra slammed into him forcing an explosion and sending him flying across the forest.

Dosu was forced through a thick trunk and was embedded in the rock behind it, Dosu expelled blood from his mouth as the stains in his bandage became visible.

"H-how!?" Zaku wondered when he could see that the pink haired genin was rushing at him like a speeding bullet, Zaku, then rushed to, head first and as Sakura got closer, Zaku prepared his jutsu, before Sakura could get her Nodachi close enough for a swipe, Zaku made a spin move and went past Sakura in a flash, Sakura was surprised as he blasted her with the air pressure from his palms sending crashing on the ground next to the female Oto Nin. Lee was surprised at first, he did not think Sakura would be on the initiative once Naruto appeared, but quickly, he had come and assaulted Zaku with a powerful knee that the Oto Nin simply ducked.

Sakura tried to stand up, as she could feel the full blast of the Air Pressure, her muscles were aching, as was her head that sported a new cut, she was now bleeding on the side of her forehead, the wounds and bruises were becoming prominent. She could feel her pain as she tried to move her fingertips and winced.

Then she felt a strong tug on her hair, she was hoisted up and she winced,

"Oh? Your hair is very pretty. Tell me, did you always tried to look cute and not act like a shinobi? I bet you let your teammates do all the dirty work for you, you spoiled brat." Said the woman

"RRRAAAAHHH!"

Another yell was heard, and the woman could see Naruto bulldozing through the rock and slamming through to another with Dosu in the middle

"That reckless guy is really strong, I suspect he grumbles about you staying behind and watching helplessly as they get their hands bloody."

'_It's always like this…'_ Sakura thought, and then grinned, _'Not anymore though'_

With that, she outstretched her gloved hand fast enough that Kin wasn't able to react immediately, Sakura had a powerful grip on her neck

"Sasuke and Naruto will always be stronger than me…" She said and then placed the blade resting on her gloved hand

"But that doesn't mean I'm not strong as well!" With that, she slid the blade back, she could see sparks flying from the blade and then…

BOOM!

The explosion sent Kin falling back first to the ground, burn marks around her neck, Sakura standing tall in front of her. The pink haired girl grabbed her pink locks and raised it.

"This hair is the symbol of my vanity and childish dreams…"

Sakura then, with her short sword, cut of her hair… She let the strands of her locks flow freely into the wind

"Not anymore. Not when I saw of what I truly needed to do."

Naruto on the other hand didn't let up on his attack on Dosu, he pummelled Dosu with punches like a berserker embedding the poor Oto Nin further and further into the rock

"How do you like my punches, Bitch!" Said the blonde laughing along the way as if enjoying himself. Dosu was already at the brink of unconsciousness, the blonde was simply dominating when it came to a very furious Taijutsu fight, Dosu was like a dancing lunatic that was having a seizure when the Uzumaki pummelled him with fists that were flung and drawn back faster than he could blink.

Dosu thought he had enough and flung his melody arm at the blonde, Naruto blocked it with his right hand, Dosu grinned inside his mask, and Naruto reacted immediately, crushing the melody arm with his bare hand.

"GUUUUAHHHH!"

Dosu screamed, bits and pieces of metal piercing his flesh like a knife through bread

"The moment that you used that to shatter that log that Sakura made for a trap, I instantly came to a realization that your arm either uses chakra and shatter it with brute strength."

"Or you used a vibration powerful enough to synchronize with the molecules of the log and then shatter it like glass."

Dosu was surprised, he _never_ guessed that someone so young could discover the technique he had just by simple observation.

"H-How did you…"

"Just a hunch really, sound waves are really hard to detect especially when they are in hyper resonance. The only way you'll know is how much of your own body is vibrating." Said Naruto as he gave of gathered energy to his right fingertips the energy coating Naruto's hand and began to form claws

"Kirikorosu (Slay)" Naruto said as he was about to slash down Dosu.

"Naruto! Sasuke's up and he's emitting that chakra!"

He stopped when he felt an enormous surge of chakra, Naruto turned around in the direction of their hideout and then he saw _him._

Sasuke stood, purple chakra leaking out of him, visible enough that it made the three Oto nin shudder. Naruto's hair was standing on end, he could feel the malevolence of the chakra around Sasuke and it was terrifying. The amount of killing intent was ever so present and Naruto could see the silhouette of the snake man behind Sasuke, those golden slit eyes that made him drop in cold sweat.

As soon as he saw the scroll being tossed from the bushes, Naruto instinctively dashed towards Sasuke in as much speed as possible, letting the aura dissipate from his right hand and then gathering it inside himself, he caught the scroll in midair and unfurled it slamming his hand to the paper, countless letters and runic lines began to escape the scroll crawling out on the ground and began to surround Sasuke,

"What are you doing, Naruto?" Asked Sasuke, Naruto ignored that question and began forming handseals, the ground below him glowed in blue light as Naruto continued forming the seals, and began chanting the letters began to accumulate on his left palm and began to form one letter character, Repel. Naruto's eyes glowed in blue

With his outstretched left hand, he supported it with his right hand and said, "Fuinjutsu: Kyokai no Enkei! (Sealing arts: Circle of Distortion)"

Immediately, four white circles began to surround Sasuke and Naruto, then four white pillars of light shot up from the four corners from where the two boys stood.

"Naruto… Let me go… the people that want to hurt Sakura are still alive." He said, as he turned his head around, he saw Dosu with a badly damaged right arm that was bleeding, Zaku who was still in engagement against Rock Lee and was currently on the loosing end and Kin who was already on the ground, burn marks around her neck with Sakura now on the floor panting

"Why are you stopping me?" Asked Sasuke

"What do you want?" Naruto asked, Sasuke gave a menacing smirk and said,

"Power."

Naruto gritted his teeth and grabbed a scroll from his pouch

"If power is what you want then drop that hindrance from your system, it will only slow your progress." Said the blonde and again, tossing the scroll near Sasuke

"Take it; it's a gift from me. I've been experimenting on weapons and seals for two years. It's one of my finer weapons that has been stocked up with me since turning genin." Said Naruto. Sasuke grabbed the scroll and Naruto immediately clapped his hands together to a seal

"Fuuin! (Seal)" Naruto said and soon the white pillars of light began to bend, then slowly drop like rainfall to the ground, it began to creep fast towards the Uchiha, as if a countless electric currents running in to one core to power it, Sasuke's pupils constructed as the sudden surge of the seal began to take it's effect, it felt like someone was using a pincer on the base of his neck where the itch was it was painful, so painful that Sasuke dropped to the ground, screaming.

"N-Naruto… Why?" Sasuke asked

"To stop whatever that snake man implanted in you, rest assure, you won't be able to use it again. Be thankful that I even gave you Guren Zanpaku (Crimson Lotus Soul Cutter)" Naruto mentioned

In another part of the bushes, three Leaf Genin had watched the fight intently,

"Oi, I don't think it was a good idea to mess with Team Seven to begin with." Said Shikamaru

"See, I told you! Sasuke-kun is just that awesome!" Ino said, Shikamaru uttered,

"What so awesome about him? He didn't even pitch in for the fight. The way I see it, Naruto and Sakura did most of the job." Said Shikamaru earning another earful from Ino.

"Well, well, well look who do we have here?" A voice asked beside the three genin, and all of them soon panicked, a tingling sensation ran through their span as they turned around and saw Naruto right behind them

"You weren't thinking about going after OUR scroll now, were you?" Naruto asked, the three shook their heads.

"Good, because if you are…" Naruto cracked his knuckles and then said,

"Comrades or not, in this game, it's eat or be eaten." Said the blonde and soon, all three of them are gone.

All three nodded clearly, Naruto grinned

"Good! Now that you are reminded, scram!" Said the blonde and all three genins of Team Ten scattered.

Shino and his team then jumped down from the trees and said,

"Now that the threat has been eliminated, there is no use for us to guard Uchiha-san." Naruto could only hear vaguely as his vision was starting to blur, he tried to sit down, instead he flopped down on the ground and he was immediately out cold.

"He's too tired to do anything anymore, let's let him rest."

"Naruto… You did a marvellous job." Said Sakura, and Rock Lee nodded

"I cannot agree with you more, Sakura-san! Naruto has shown his springtime of youth… Youthfully! I too shall endeavour to do the same!" Lee exclaimed handing over the scroll that Zaku gave them, it was too humiliating for their defeat at the hands of a bunch of kids, but to the victor goes the spoils

"Lee-san, why are you…" Sakura asked and Lee replied,

"Without Naruto-kun, I'm sure we would have been in a more dangerous situation! That is why this is your scroll, your team has earned it!" Said Lee, as he turned his head and saw his two teammates standing over a tree branch

"Till we meet again!" Said Lee as he jumped on the branch and the three vanished leaving Sakura behind, with Naruto and Sasuke knocked out.

Twenty four hours later:

Team Seven has made a slight recovery, seeing as this was the second to the last day of the current exam, they had to hustle it. Sasuke was miffed at first, who would be when someone had denied you the use of your new power on the people that mistreated your friend?

Naruto reminded him that it would have been more risky rather than beneficial telling him that the seal was one that would lock his potential rather than unleash it. For if he had to rely on the seal, then it would mean that his improvement would stagger behind.

Sasuke had his doubts about him, Naruto told him there were no panaceas that would give Sasuke the power that he needed in a flash, reminding him that strength is gradual but not flashy. It had to be shown in subtle forms, slowly rising to the top, Sasuke did not understand Naruto's logic at best, but he would secretly thank Naruto for the new weapon that he had received,

Guren Zanpaku was an excellent Kusari Gama, the wavy crimson patterns of the Kusarigama was ornamented with a dragon coil design on the cloth wrapped handle and a black gem on the back of its arching blade, if Sasuke were to swing hard enough, there was a mechanism that fired the sickle and the black hand guard becomes a chain for wide arc attacks.

Once they had entered the tower, they were greeted by Iruka who informed them about the purpose of the second exam and what heaven and earth represented on each scroll, needless to say, Naruto found it a pointless banter and decided to go to the side to rest for a while.

Seeing as he sat down by the nearest most comfortable wall he could have, one ANBU member appeared before him, it was the one in the tiger mask again.

"Congratulations on passing the second exam, Naruto-san." The ANBU mentioned, Naruto just waved his hand and nodded

"I take it the old man wants to speak with me." Naruto said, to this the operative shook his head

"He says it is for a later time, right now, he says it should feel right to tell your teammates about yourself." Said Tora and he vanished in a plume of smoke.

Naruto just gritted his teeth and motioned for his teammates to sit with him and mentioned,

"It's not within my own pride that I'm doing this because I want to." Said Naruto as he crossed his shoulders

"But as the Hokage said, since I've done some… Special things during that exam, I guess it is time to reveal about my true identity and my lineage because as of right now, an international incident is about to occur." Said Naruto

Sakura scratched her hair in thought, _'How does it involve Naruto?'_

"First, what do you know about the bloodline limits? Especially those that could theoretically transcend on what you know about ninja techniques."

"They're non-existent, rare or dead." Said Sasuke, Naruto nodded further delving into the lecture,

"That's true, most of the bloodline limits that transcends the ninja world were either mere legends, rare, or extinct. The Mangekyou Sharingan for example is a sample of an extinct bloodline limit."

To this Sasuke flinched

"A legendary bloodline limit like the Rinnegan is considered a myth. But many argue that it does actually exist, including my sensei that had said that he had encountered them on the borders of Ame." Said Naruto then grabbing his calligraphy brush and then grabbing the last of his spare scrolls he began writing another set of seals in it.

"My bloodline limit was the cause of the war between Konoha and Iwa on the Third Great Shinobi War." Said Naruto letting the ink settle first to dry and then rolling it up

"When Iwa foresaw the power of the ruling clan in a small country in Uzu no Kuni. They forced the small country into an unwilling province of Tsuchi no Kuni. The ruling in that country was none than my own clan, the Uzumaki Clan."

"The many clans that consisted of Uzu no Kuni didn't take the move of Iwa too kindly and began to form a massive rebellion. Led first by my own grandfather, Uzumaki Amakusa."

"And since Uzu was an immediate ally of Konoha, Konoha staged a massive counter attack against Iwa that drove them back to their territory."

"All for a bloodline limit that could control the Bijuu with a whisper of the mouth." Said the blonde

Sakura was first to ask the question, "So you can control any Bijuu with simple verbal commands?"

"Yes, yet among the Uzumaki clan, few people can actually do this, as the special ability that comes with the Whisperings, are the dense chakra that was in us. Because of this, we are immune to the chakra emissions of the Bijuu and our chakra is thick enough that it could actually change our body to physically augment it or use the dense chakra as a projectile or convert it to a specific element without hindrance."

"So basically, this bloodline ability of yours can let you control the bijuu without a problem?" Sasuke asked, Naruto shook his head

"No, sadly, only Alpha users can be able to do it, I'm still in the stage where I don't know my status, either I'm an Alpha, Beta or Gamma." Said the blonde as he looked down on his stomach, true, he still can't determine himself as a member of the Alpha type of the users in the Uzumaki Clan, the reason he could control the bijuu was with the help of Kyuubi himself, the Youki was potent enough to cause a resonance within the bijuu that they just had to respond to Naruto's voice.

"Now that you know about my ability, let me tell you this straight, there are people that want to get rid of me, both inside and outside the village, there are people that want me dead. I can't say that with the info I divulged with you, I can guarantee your safety. In fact, that's just one of the many secrets that Sandaime-jiji forced to be kept hidden from anyone as I manifested its ability when I was only four." Said the blonde. The two only gaped at that.

"Granted, Sasayaki no Ryuusui is a hard ability to contain, the chakra control was just a pain in the ass that I couldn't stand. By the end of the month, I finally had the ability to use the Aura ability, which was the manifestation of the dense chakra as a thick cloak around the user. It's the source of all that power that I did against Orochimaru."

After that story, Naruto and his team walked upwards and then settled to one of the rooms that was designated for them, they each gave a sigh of relief and finally, they fell asleep on each of their own beds, awaiting the arrival of the new day that is to come…

To be Continued…

* * *

This clicked in my head as I was studying, don't know why but it's really, really bothering me lately. Oh, I'll try to get my mind working on this one. So hopefully, I'll update.

Ja!


	2. Gale Arc

The Flowing Water's Whisperings

Chapter Two: Gale Arc

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, all copyrights belong to Kishimoto Masashi, this is strictly for fan purposes only

* * *

"_Master of the elements, voice of the beast, to the earth you are beckoned,_

_Let thy words flow and the heart strengthened,_

_For the end is nigh, heed thy last second"_

Naruto woke up, he sat on his bed and cold sweat dripping from his forehead, he bowed and gripped his head tightly

"The call of the Alpha…" He muttered, he got out of his bed, and got dressed with his orange pants and black shirt, putting on his sandals, he had not bothered to put on his jacket, it was mostly ruined anyway, with that he walked with much fervor towards the outside of the said building, the blonde gazed up at the white full moon and remained quiet, he clenched his fists and as he turned his back and looked at the top of the tower at the center of the groves and gigantic trees of the Forest of Death, if he was going to fulfill the first half of being an Alpha, he needed to meditate and focus. The gathering of the chakra meant he needed to attune his senses to every available element he could possibly feel, so first, he had to start of with his best element, Wind.

He began to scale the walls of the tower feeling the night's cold air gently caressing his face, it felt good to be able to recover quickly, the fox had gone and done a perfect job yet again in securing his well being, the blonde had wondered just how the fox wanted him to be so resilient when he could just let the blonde weaken and be done with it, to escape from his prison and be on his merry havoc way.

"**Because… Seal… Different… Escape… Impossible… Shinigami… contract…"**

The connection with the said Bijuu was worsening, the seal that Orochimaru had placed on his stomach, ultimately hay wired whatever he and the demon fox would communicate. Although he was a Fuinjutsu specialist much like Jiraiya's, Naruto was reluctant on unsealing the Gogyofuin himself, from the position of the boy, he could make a terrible mistake that could lead to little parts of him flying everywhere.

The blonde shuddered at that thought…

Reaching the top of the tower, the blonde felt the gentle cool breeze of the night on his face and body, Naruto looked around and then when he made sure it was now safe, he flared his chakra slightly, causing the wind to start to pick up and howl around the top of the tower, the sound was not that noisy, but any ninja would be on their feet already once they heard something like that, it was soothing pretty soon, little flower petals began to surround the area, Naruto wasn't sure why or how the petals appeared but if one were to view the scene from below, they would think that the top of the tower had a created a mist filled ring with countless flower petals dancing around, Naruto chuckled at that as he looked in front of him, there stood in front of him, a beautiful woman, was standing before him

Flowing long black hair, reaching to her back, a red long skirt and green breastplate covered her, she had a dome shaped helmet, with wings as design on her head, a sword strapped on her side as she held a shield with a design of a red dragon with its wings spread. Her teal green eyes made Naruto stare at her for a moment before snapping him out of his funk.

"So you have chosen me to be your first proctor… May Inquire why?" Asked the woman, Naruto nodded and answered her

"Because the wind is my first element, and before I fight the others, I must first fight with those that I am familiar with before I go on to the next." Said the blonde, to this the woman chuckled,

"So you're saying that familiarity will be your most trusted attribute to help you pass this test?"

Naruto nodded and the woman closed her eyes and smiled, "Such naivety but…"

As she said this, she drew her sword, it was short but was a double edged sword, widening her stance, she looked at the blonde eye to eye.

"Never think that it will be that easy, boy…"

Naruto grinned, now this is more like it, he was itching to get the whole thing started,

"Before I forget, since you are my examiner, I'd like to know your name…"

The woman smiled and said to him, "I am Tiamat, spirit and fiend of the Wind."

With that she vanished from Naruto sight and instantly appeared above him, Naruto cursed and pumped his chakra to his legs, effectively dodging a downward stab from Tiamat, as Naruto eyed his opponent, immediately, he began to gather chakra at his fists and then igniting it causing a small burst of flame to appear.

"Nenshouken! (Burning Fist)" The blonde shouted as he shifted his weight and changed his trajectory, immediately closing the gap between him and Tiamat. Tiamat had then blocked with her shield, forcing the attack to dissipate and then forcing the blonde back. Naruto jumped to the side immediately as he then gathered flames in both his fists, "Souga… Nenshouken! (Burning Fist Twin Fang)"

"Hmph, continuing to attack with the same weak skill…" With that Tiamat used her left hand that held her shield and forced Naruto's head down, using it as leverage, Tiamat jumped over the blonde and then swung her right hand that held her short sword, straight towards Naruto's nape, The blonde was quick to react in dropping down, but his still activated technique connected with the floor causing a small explosion that sent him careening to the opposite side.

The blonde stood up, blood coming out of his mouth and multiple burns appeared on his arms; the technique he used backfired on him.

"Don't underestimate me!" Tiamat yelled as this time, she dashed towards the blonde and reappeared on his side, swinging her blade, the blonde was barely able to dodge the blow and a few strands of his golden locks were severed, Tiamat then aimed a stab downwards, The blonde immediately rolled to the side and regained his footing when Tiamat missed. The blonde stood up, he looked at Tiamat as she slowly walked towards him, her blade in hand.

"That line is only reserved for me!" The blonde shouted as he grinned and then dashed at Tiamat with blinding speeds, Tiamat reacted and clashed with Naruto's speed, both fighters clashing and moving and clashing again in a deadly blur around the area, often Naruto trying to force through Tiamat's defense and Tiamat trying to take Naruto down with one hit. Both fighters blurred and clashed yet again, and Naruto slid on the tiled floor back first, Tiamat's shield had connected on Naruto's face.

"Damn it… If only I brought that scroll with me!" Muttered the blonde but he was then met with another sword thrust, this time, she aimed at Naruto's gut, the blonde, not wasting a moment, sidestepped the attack, but Tiamat managed to cut Naruto's left side, the blonde flinched in pain and jumped back, favoring the cut on the side of his abdomen.

"This is not a battle, this is a slaughter…" Tiamat said as she looked at the blonde disdainfully, "You who have been called as an Alpha, you do not yet have the ability to wield my power."

Tiamat then held her sword close to her chest as streams of wind began circulating on her blade, the winds howled in fury as Tiamat's back grew large, dragon scale wings extending, she began to ascend from her area, and then began her assault,

"Tsukishiro… (White moon)" Tiamat muttered as she began her assault on Naruto, the blonde was surprised as the descent of Tiamat increased her speed, Naruto barely managed to evade her attack that had chipped his lower left leg, Tiamat turned around and then continued her assault, with each descent and ascent, her speed increased, the blonde cursed at the situation, he never felt so useless! His blood dripped everywhere from the wound on his chest, his arms, legs, even neck and cheek, Naruto was beginning to show his fatigue, the pain was tiring him out, and the loss of blood made him nauseous.

"Damn it… She's far too fast; she could literally get past my defenses before I can even set up a proper counter…"

"Familiarity indeed does make you feel safe, but once that familiarity is gone…" Tiamat then ascended even further the wind around her sword expanded.

Tiamat then aimed the tip of her sword to the blonde, the blonde gritted his teeth, he then said, "I can't believe I'll have to use it this early…"

To this, he gathered his energy around his body, and his chakra expanded, glowing in a deep red, flames began appearing around his area, crouching down, the blonde said to Tiamat, "I don't care if I'm familiar with something or not, all that matters is I finish, this, I'll break through, and nothing will stop me… Not even the Spirits of the Alpha!"

The flames danced wildly, as the wind engulfed the blonde. For a moment, it was as if Tiamat had won, but suddenly, a spiraling column of flame surged through the whirlwind, forcing Tiamat to stop her attack, to her surprise, she saw the blonde standing in front of her, unmoving, the blonde jumped straight at her, but Tiamat attacked with Tsukishiro again, Naruto then extended his right leg straight towards Tiamat in a straight flying kick, streak of flames leaving his wake and an image of a phoenix appeared around the blonde, with its wings fully outstretched,

"Huoutenku! (Heaven Phoenix Drive)" The blonde shouted as it pierced through the attack hitting Tiamat square on her abdomen and enveloping her in flames. They both fell down at the same time, crashing on the tiled roof below, Naruto was the first one to come out and stand first, and then looked at his proctor…

Tiamat's helmet was removed, her teal green eyes glowed and her dragon-like wings extended, she touched the flat part of her blade and slid her hand, the blade glowed in an incandescent white light, as the blade seemingly extended

"Kuuha Tenretsujin! (Space Rend Heaven Divide Impact)" She said as she slashed the sword down, the range of the sword fully extending to reach the blonde. Naruto cursed and jumped back, suddenly, Tiamat was already on him with her wings flapped, the blonde jumped as he yet again and narrowly evaded the horizontal slash.

Gathering his chakra with both his hands again, he raised his arms up as he descended towards Tiamat.

"Kanezuchi! (Hammer)" The blonde's hands then glowed as he swung his arms down Tiamat was quick to react using her shield, but it shattered under the force of Naruto's blow and then reached her arm, Naruto, now on the offensive grabbed the woman by the waist to prevent her from counterattacking him with her enhanced blade. Both combatants fell to the tiled floor as they slid through it, ultimately ending up on the ring of wind that was encircling the top of the tower. Naruto was surprised that he didn't fall.

"Wha-?" Naruto's vision was blurry, his wounds were beginning to close, looking around; he could see that he was standing on the stream of wind that was surrounding the rooftop.

"This is the ring of fate, the border that bounds us to this place, you, chosen Alpha, should be blessed by the powers of the former spirits of our clan." Tiamat said,

Naruto looked at her incredulously, as she came closer to the blonde tapping his forehead.

"It has been hundreds of years since I could remember my true name… Now I am only known as the spirit of the great wind, I was once leader of our clan. An Alpha who has strong ties to our element, when they pass, they cannot leave. They shall serve as the Great Spirit of their element until one comes to take over. Now that you have proven yourself to me, young Alpha, you are now my successor, receive my power, for I am Tiamat, queen of the raging wind, grant you, Kaze no Katachi (Form of Wind)"

With that, Tiamat kissed Naruto's forehead as she began to dematerialize and turn into the winds, Naruto could see the green light entering him, into his chest, and the blonde suddenly felt weightless, the resistance under his feet was no more and he was sent crashing to the ground below

"SSHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIITTTTTT!"

Was all that could be heard from the outer walls of the forest of death.

The next day:

Naruto awoke from his bed, he stiffened his shoulders and stretched, the effects of Kyuubi's regeneration was still there, so his connection with the fox must still be active, just not that strong. Cracking his knuckles and getting out of bed, he was suddenly surprised when he was visited by Hinata.

"Naruto-kun, H-Hokage-sama's announcement is about to sta-"

When she entered the door, Hinata expected Naruto was dressed like he was when they were children, the thoughts of a boy wearing that seal hat and those blue pajamas made Hinata squeal on the inside of just how adorable Naruto was when they were younger, but now…

Even though they were only about to start their teenage years, Naruto was developing earlier than she had expected, and to top it off, he was only wearing boxers right now, so Hinata remained stunned as her face turned to different shades of red before finally succumbing to the blood loss on her nose.

Not one to take his own compromise quickly, Naruto caught Hinata into his arms as she passed out, barely. The blonde panicked when she fell, and shouted, "Ack! Hinata!"

Just then, a new voice entered the scene

"Naruto… You've been sleeping enough, Hokage-sama wants us downstairs in ten minute-"

Kakashi looked at the compromising position his student was in, and being the perverted man that he is, Kakashi giggled like a school girl and said to the blonde,

"Oh, sorry about that, I'll just leave you alone to your business, be sure to use protection!"

Naruto glared at the jounin until he noticed why the scarecrow jounin said that, he was only wearing his underwear, and Hinata was only a few inches just below his pelvis,

"Damn it, I need to be more aware of myself."

With that, he set Hinata on his bed and got dressed, the tattered jacket was worn and gently, he woke Hinata up,

Hinata came to for a few moments, trying to recall why she had fainted, blushing at that thought, she stood up immediately, hitting Naruto square on his forehead, the blonde stumbled and fell out of his bed, and Hinata flinched.

"Ouch!" The blonde yelled as he crawled up to bed,

"You, okay Hinata?" Asked the blonde, Hinata was more concerned about Naruto however,

"B-But you, fell down, and I hit your head… I-I should be the one asking…"

Naruto butted in, "But I didn't faint last time, so I have to be the one asking."

Hinata smiled a little and shook her head, always the same Naruto, Hinata told Naruto that she was fine and let Naruto go out of the door, once he was outside, Hinata made sure no one was looking and sniffed the blanket that Naruto slept on,

'_Naruto-kun's scent…' _

Outside, a chill ran down Naruto's spine,

Patiently, he waited for the lavender eyed girl to come out of the room and both of them headed down, when they were down below, Kakashi gestured to Naruto a thumbs up, earning a blushed reaction from the blonde and turned away his gaze, he knew exactly what that meant.

As soon as he got to his position, up front in front of his two teammates. The Sandaime had finished his speech and a ninja interjected the speech of the old man,

"Hokage-sama, if I may intrude?" Asked the sickly jounin, the Sandaime nodded

"After the second test, it has been decided that there are far too many of you to continue to the third test, so to reduce the numbers, we decided to do some preliminary fights, anyone who wishes to back down now, raise your hands and do so, don't worry, it won't affect your teammates."

With that, a hand was raised, Naruto was stoic when he saw Kabuto raised his arms, ever since their meeting in the first exam, he had not felt close to the man that was willing to give them information, and almost all of which were classified, to this when Kabuto passed Naruto, the blonde said to the Kabuto that the two of them could only hear, Kabuto looked surprised when he turned his head, while the blonde did not move his head to look at the silver haired genin.

Kabuto looked like he saw a ghost when the blonde said to him, "Run like the weasel that you are, trash, when I see you again, I'll be sure to take that backstabbing head of yours off your shoulders."

Kabuto then turned around, what was most frightening thing that he got from the blonde was not that he would kill him, far from it, he had received countless threats from many people considering their line of work, and it coming from a genin was so laughable that a jounin can't help but snicker. But what made Kabuto fear the blonde was the fact that Naruto had discovered the spy underneath Konoha.

'_Orochimaru-sama must now this…' _Kabuto thought as soon as he was out of sight, he vanished in a plume of smoke.

"I am Gekkou Hayate and I will be serving as the proctor of the preliminary exam, as a start of the preliminaries, the monitor above shall show the first two fighters that will square off now."

As soon as the screen opened, countless random names had popped up, going through the names of the contestants, everyone was tense, and then… It stopped. The names had left everyone looking at the fighters then at the screen,

"First Match, Uzumaki Naruto versus Tsurugi Misumi. All current non-combatants occupy the bleachers upstairs." With that, all of them nodded, leaving three people down on the floor below, one was wearing glasses and a mask to cover his face while the other was the obnoxious blonde that had the sleeves of his trademark orange jacket torn. Hayate coughed and informed the fighters to come closer and tell them,

"Let me tell you the rules first, this is a one-on-one battle, anything goes, you are a free to kill your opponent, however, I have the absolute authority to decide a match, if I deem that it's over, then it's over, understood?"

Both fighters nodded

With that, Hayate had begun the match.

Once Hayate had begun the match, both fighters jumped back, awaiting each other to make the lethal first move, Naruto frowned when he saw that Misumi didn't want to attack him, it meant that either Misumi was a counter specialist or he wants to study Naruto's fighting style, Misumi grinned inside his mask as he then said to the blonde,

"Uzumaki Naruto… Heh, you're pretty famous around Konoha, right?"

To this, the blonde merely squinted and said, "A lot of people either love me or hate me, it depends… What brought this up?"

Misumi chuckled as he then said, "I know a lot about your fighting style, more of a street fighter type of person rather than one who has form… Able to use a B-rank Ninjutsu easily that most other Jounin find difficult."

To those that didn't know Naruto, were alarmed at that, Asuma had spoken first, "Oi, Kakashi… Is that guy serious? Those statements are pretty unbelievable; Naruto's a starting Genin, to learn a B-rank Ninjutsu just two months prior graduation…"

"You should know how Naruto fought Mizuki the night of the final exams…" Kakashi mentioned, not bothering to look at Asuma's way,

"But the details of that were vague; all it said was Naruto learned a technique from the forbidden scroll of…" To this Asuma stopped but this time, Gai interjected,

"It could be anything! The battle that night left too many details unsolved… Kakashi, tell me, just what did Naruto learn from the Forbidden Scroll?"

Down below, Naruto smirked and answered the question, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu… (Shadow Clone Replication)" At that instant, three clones appeared in a cloud of smoke, dashing towards the bespectacled man who merely extended his arms sideways, and began to swing his extended limbs around hitting the three clones all at once vanishing in a cloud of smoke, Misumi then retracted his arms back and said, "But for an opponent like me, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu is useless…"

Naruto raised an eyebrow at this as he then said, "Who said anything about using Kage Bunshin to defeat you?"

To this the blonde grinned and grabbed a scroll from his pocket,

"Kuchiyose… Gufuu no Te! (Summoning: Hands of the Hurricane)"

The smoke cleared and out came a pair of white gauntlets on Naruto's arms; the gauntlet glowed in blue and green color, as what seemed to be like wings on the gauntlets suddenly snapped forward, the gauntlets now looked like a pair of crossbows,

"You just didn't know about my other techniques…" Said the blonde, Soon Misumi surrounded Naruto with his elongated body, the blonde remained standing as Misumi began to coil himself around the blonde and then finally, about to constrict him, Naruto grinned and told him,

"You think your Kekkei Genkai is strong?" Asked the blonde, Misumi gloated

"I don't think, I know!" Naruto then looked at him in the eye

"Then if you'll excuse me, you should start to feel the effects of the attack."

Just then, Misumi howled in pain as countless body blows were sent to him, he retracted his body and lurched down on the ground to regain his footing

"Hanaoshidori (Beautiful Mallard)…"

"What… Happened, what was that!?" Misumi asked, the blonde merely ignored that statement and gathered energy into both his index fingers and aimed it straight at Misumi,

"Kazefukurou! (Wind Owl)"

Just then, a small round ball of an object glowing from Naruto's hand fired itself towards Misumi, the said man didn't know what to do, the attack was fast enough that he couldn't counter properly, and he was hit square on the abdomen, the orb burst out and Misumi was blown away, Misumi then saw the blonde get in front of him, that fast, Kakashi saw this and then frowned, it was different, Naruto felt different, the punch that connected on Misumi's face, it was different now, it was as if, the blonde knew when and how to strike now, not his balls to the wall attitude, and that technique he used, he had never seen the blonde do it against Zabuza when they were fighting on the seashore…

Misumi was thrown back by the force of the blow and had hit the concrete wall behind him, Naruto then jumped on top, preparing a windmill shuriken that appeared in a plume of smoke and then threw the unwieldy weapon towards Misumi, Misumi, dodged the blow but was then stopped when Naruto began bombarding him with green streaks of light that came from the blonde's fingertips…

"Don't take me lightly!" Misumi yelled, extending his arms and then spinning around effectively killing the shadow clone that recently transformed from being the windmill shuriken, Naruto escaped the blow and landed perfectly on the floor below, seeing the state that Misumi was in, the blonde grinned… He then told Misumi,

"I guess it's time to test my Kekkei Genkai's most powerful ability…" The blonde said, earning a gasp from the Jounin instructors and a sigh from the Hokage,

"Sasayaki no Ryuusui, Futtobase, Kaze no Katachi! (The Flowing Water's Whisperings, blow away Form of Wind)"

To this, Kakashi had finally confirmed why Naruto had the last name of Uzumaki, "He's her son…"

Kakashi was left stunned when he saw Naruto change form, the weavings of the chakra surrounding him, it was materializing in its form, Naruto wore a long black overcoat just reaching to his knees, ornamented by the fur on the mane, and khaki pants, a black shirt underneath and a pair of goggles on top of his forehead.

He smirked, and then reappearing beside Misumi, Naruto punched him again in the face, not stopping there, once Misumi staggered back, Naruto pulled Misumi's arm and then kicked the said man upwards, hitting the chin and sending him skyrocketing up. The blonde then gathered energy into his gloves and then separated it into three different orbs, the blonde shouted the name of the attack

"Amadzuru! (Heaven Crane)" With that, he fired the energy bolt upwards and countless bolts rained down on his victim, the blonde then gathered yet again, the chakra to his fingertips, he then clasped his hands together and aimed it upward,

"Kamuidori! (Offering to the Wrathful god)" With that, it zoomed its way to Misumi as he lay helpless to the oncoming projectile, blasting him and then creating a large hole on the wall of the tower, Misumi was nowhere to be found…

Sarutobi looked distressed however as now, Naruto had revealed, that he was indeed the last of his bloodline,

"So the name Uzumaki was not just a coincidence…" Kurenai muttered, Kakashi couldn't help but say, "It never was, but with that bloodline… What is Naruto thinking?"

Shikamaru was surprised by this, he had seen Naruto perform techniques that were literally unheard off, but to also change form of one's ability? It was truly astounding to find an ability such as that, he looked on at the Jounin instructor of Team Seven and said, "You seem to know more about this, Kakashi-sensei… Can tell us more about this bloodline?"

Gekkou Hayate had then announced the winner of the match, and Naruto's form went back to his old orange pants, the tattered orange jacket and his black shirt underneath.

The blonde then walked towards the stairway and to his team, Kakashi had merely said to Shikamaru

"Naruto's bloodline, Sasayaki no Ryuusui… Is the bloodline that caused the third Great Shinobi War…"

To this extent, the ninjas from Suna were surprised; Baki was gripping the side rails very hard

"Sasayaki no Ryuusui, you say… The bloodline that was coveted by every possible village there was…"

Baki was now tense; the attack strategy would have to be scrapped. Gaara would utterly be useless against this boy.

Kakashi continued, "It was a bloodline that had every village frantically coveting it. The Uzumaki were a clan that had the ability to willfully control any Bijuu there is and in turn, the clan had the power to manipulate their chakra to a degree that they didn't need handseals to convert their chakra to a specific element."

To this, Neji had shouted, "But that's impossible! Handseals are the guidelines on how to perform jutsu!"

Kakashi replied,

"To most people yes, but to the Uzumaki, their chakra were dense enough and volatile enough to change, due to the effects of being exposed to the bijuu, the Uzumaki had the ultimate Taijutsu style, isn't that right, Gai?"

Gai had answered, "It's true; no amount of training could put you on the same degree of Taijutsu than that of the Uzumaki, especially when fighting an Alpha. Alpha tend to have far too many different styles that suit their situation best, combined with their ability to go beyond of handseals and limits of chakra expulsion, they were the ultimate users of close combat fighting."

To this, Lee could see Gai gripping the side rails hard

"But Gai-sensei… Certainly the Uzumaki had weaknesses!" Lee mentioned, to this Gai nodded

"Yes it's true, the Uzumaki had a flaw in them, and it was their frustrating chakra control. Because of how dense their chakra was, it meant that they needed to have a higher degree of control, but since it was that, the Uzumaki tend to turn to more Area effect Ninjutsu rather than concentrated ones. The fatal weakness that they had, forced them to fight for only short periods at a time." Said Gai, Kakashi then continued, "But thanks to Naruto's reserves, that fatal weakness isn't there, he could rampage with that technique for four hours and he still wouldn't look drained."

Naruto was then greeted by the sight of his teammates,

Sasuke made a fist, Naruto grinned like an animal and hit Sasuke's fist with his own, and as if on cue, the screen had began to jumble the names yet again.

And soon, a new set of combatants appeared,

Nara Shikamaru versus Tsuchi Kin

Shikamaru sighed, and he then stepped down into the arena and started complaining, "Man, why do I have to fight early on, there were a lot of other people here willing to go, why no them?"

To this, Naruto had a vein popping in his head, "Oi, genius, random sampling, remember?"

Shikamaru gave him the finger salute and said, "Shut it, blondie, I'm complaining about my bad luck!"

Naruto merely cleaned his ear and leaned on the rails and said, "Pssh, Yeah right, if getting it on with some chick is bad luck; then I'm obviously gay."

To this, the girl below yelled, "Shut the hell up, you smart mouth! Why don't YOU try getting down here and slug me one?"

She said pointing to her chin, Naruto, being the ever obnoxious brat and not one to back down in the verbal warfare said nonchalantly to Kin,

"Oh, I'd love to slug one on you, but not there, if you know what I mean…" To this, he gave a feral smile, Kin blushed at that statement, taken aback at what the blonde just said,

The rest of the female candidates however, blushed at that conversation, Naruto then earned a bash on his head by his teammate, Sakura

"NARUTO, YOU PERVERT!"

The blonde just gave her one case of raspberry and she was enraged, who had thought that something so childish would be so irritating?

Kakashi just sighed, this was Naruto after all, God knows what was going on in that head of his. Inoichi would probably get lost just sorting out the mind of that boy, he was way too unpredictable.

Once the fight began, Shikamaru quickly went on the defensive, as Kin began to throw senbon after senbon, Naruto recalled the fight that the sound genin had against them, he seemed to recall that the woman used senbon as her primary weapon of choice.

Kakashi began to notice Naruto's concentration in the fight below, it was as if everything about the fight was more interesting than it actually was.

When Hayate had signaled for the match to begin, Kin, was the one who began the offensive, she was still mad at Naruto's comment and decided to vent her anger and frustration towards the pineapple haired chuunin, flinging senbon everywhere, Naruto's eyebrows were raised up when he saw the small bell attached to the senbon, looking at the sound Oto Nin, he frowned, Kakashi, seeing the blonde's reaction, said,

"So you noticed too huh?"

Naruto nodded, Sakura and Sasuke merely looked on in interest,

"Genjutsu, amateurish but effective, she fired regular senbon mixed with senbon that have strings attached with bells on them, my guess is that's the medium to deploy her technique, would have worked on someone like Ino but against Shikamaru? Pfft, that guy could win without even yawning."

Ino got mad about Naruto's comment on that, "You owe me a knuckle sandwich for that one, baka!"

Ino then tried to pound the blonde on the head, Naruto simply pushed himself away from the railings and then looked at Ino with a lazy expression,

"What? You thought I was going to let you hit me? It's true for someone like you, who can't pay attention to detail, to fall for a trick such as that, but let me remind you Ino, that woman is my natural enemy, Genjutsu is difficult for members of the Uzumaki clan to counter, so in order to counter that, we have to pay attention to detail, the ceremonies and the pre-requisites in order to prevent the enemy from deploying Genjutsu. With that fatal weakness in us, I decided I'd master one type of skill set that normally deviates from the normal golden triangle of shinobi mastery."

To that the blonde raised his right arm and rolled the sleeve of his shirt up, revealing a kanji for the word, "absorb"

"Fuuinjutsu, the art of sealing." Said Naruto and then looked at Ino in the eye,

"This seal absorbs foreign chakra that connects in my body, it's actually a complicated series of different seals under this one; one seal stops the foreign chakra dead cold in its tracks, putting it in stasis. Another seal allows the chakra that was stopped to be absorbed by me and putting it in my coils, in a way, the foreign chakra is reprogrammed into my system. This means that I am now immune to almost any Genjutsu sent at me, and I can replenish my reserves making me last longer in battle." Said Naruto,

The Jounins were surprised by this, with that sudden surge of information, it was Yuuhi Kurenai, Jounin of Team Eight that spoke, "Kakashi, did you teach Naruto Fuinjutsu?"

Kakashi was focused more in the fight below, and now when he heard Naruto explain about the sealing arts, this piqued his interest, during their training, Naruto never showed any interest in it, he knew Naruto wouldn't be the type to sit down and read the details, he was wild and lively, he'd rather pay attention to a bowl of Ramen than see the changes of someone putting their Kunai holster on the other leg.

When Kurenai had asked him the question, he was quick to answer, "No, he never said anything about it, during our time, the only jutsu he had shown was Kage Bunshin, but given the ability of Kage Bunshin, he could have learned it in a short amount of time, but I doubt it, Naruto learns best when it is demonstrated, and unless Naruto was an actual prodigy, I'd say he learned from one of the best seals master there is in Konoha, it was ether Sandaime-sama or Jiraiya-sama, and since Jiraiya-sama isn't in this place for too long, that leaves Hokage-sama."

Kakashi looked at the old man that was watching from his room, Shikamaru had finely tricked Kin into a submission from his Kage Mane no jutsu (Shadow Imitation Technique)

"Man, what a drag, I can't believe I let myself get hit just to bind you. But I guess it was worth it, I don't have to play pin cushion anymore."

Shikamaru smirked as he stood up, Kin with a surprised look, mimicked Shikamaru's moves.

"But now that you've bound me, What are you going to do? I can mimic your movements attacking me would mean attacking you as well, the best you could hope for is for a draw."

It was true, Shikamaru had in no way, had an attacking Jutsu the boy was just to damn lazy to learn one saying that his Shadow Mimicry was all that was needed, Asuma sighed at that, Shikamaru had potential, potential that far outshone Uchiha Sasuke and in recent revelations, in the same level as Uzumaki Naruto, Shikamaru could possibly go toe to toe with the blonde if it weren't for his attitude.

Shikamaru wordlessly went for a shuriken from his holster, and then aimed it at Kin

"W-WHAT ARE YOU!? CRAZY? IF YOU TRY THAT WITH THE TECHNIQUE STILL ON YOU'LL BE DEAD AS WELL!" Kin said, now she was panicking

"Shut up and die already." Was Shikamaru's only response when the both of them threw the shuriken past each other, the flying death star whizzed past each other, up in the stands, Naruto then muttered

"It's over, Shikamaru has won." With that, Shikamaru leaned back and let the shuriken passed him, Kin did so as well, but she had hit her head on the wall and was knocked out.

"That was fast." Said Sasuke, he didn't notice it at first, but Shikamaru had moved the Oto Genin near against the wall.

Shikamaru massaged his shoulders and walked towards the stairs,

"Man, what a drag…" Shikamaru muttered, meeting him up with the blonde boy upstairs, with that, Shikamaru gave an annoyed glance as Naruto made a goofy shit eating green

"Good work chick magnet, you did well on your fight." Said the blonde, Shikamaru just sighed and said,

"Naruto, you and your mouth would be the death of both of us someday."

Naruto just laughed at that, and watched the screen going through the names of the contestants and it ended with an eyebrow raising match-up

Haruno Sakura vs. Yamanaka Ino

* * *

To be continued…

* * *

Chapter preview: Path of a Warrior

"_You were always the one that I looked up to Ino… But now, because Naruto made me see just how lacking I was in terms of skills on being a ninja, I changed. Right now, I'll prove to you, just how much of Naruto's words affected me and how much he was willing for me to catch up to both him and Sasuke-kun."_

_Sakura then brandished her Nodachi, with it, Sakura slowly swung the short sword to the side and muttered, "Tachikaze… Please guide me…"_

* * *

Jutsu list:

Hanaoshidori (Beautiful Mallard)- a technique taking advantage of the Sasayaki no Ryuusui bloodline, it uses the dense chakra as its bullets, under the compartment of Gufuu no Te, is a seal compressor that forces chakra out like a bullet, Hanasoshidori is a technique that fires the compressed dense chakra in multiple directions, my basis on this is from Hisui Hearts and Reiji Arisu from Tales of Hearts and Namco vs Capcom respectively

Kazefukurou (Wind Owl)- a technique that compresses massive amounts of chakra into the seal compressor of the Gufuu no Te, the energy is compressed and made volatile and unleashed in a burst. Slower than the normal chakra bolt but far more deadly if it hits. From Hisui Hearts in Tales of Hearts

Kamuidori (Offering to the Wrathful God)- the second most powerful tech in Gufuu no Te, the compressor is activated to its near limit and fires a beam of compressed wind based chakra, the force of the attack is so strong that it does not need to cut the enemy in half, it blasts them away.

Tsukishiro (White Moon)- A wind based Tech of the Uzumaki clan, the only known person said to have made this tech is the current Greater Wind Fiend, Tiamat, her name is unknown as her identity has been forgotten with the passage of time, Tsukishiro is a move that engulfs the user's blade with the winds, drastically increasing both its cutting power and overall attack speed.

Kuuha Tenretsujin (Space Rend Heaven Divide Impact)- A wind Tech of the Uzumaki Clan, only the Greater Wind Fiend knows how to do this tech. The user, flows the condensed chakra to a very thin and almost paper like size on her sword, the flow of the chakra becomes so condensed in that specific area that it actually is hard enough to block any attack, the more refined and complete version of Tsukishiro, this technique increases the user's speed, reaction time and overall cutting power as it is said to cut even through solid steel. Basis of this is from Shing Meteoryte of Tales of Hearts

* * *

Update on this story :p

Passed the exam so I've been partying for a few days, that and I had to register my name for the oath taking ceremony by august along with some 32,000 others that passed the exam, damn was I lucky, some of my friends weren't though and we settled their grievances over a bottle of beer and a few chips. Damn I've never been so wasted in my life.


	3. Path of a Warrior Oath of Souls

Chapter Three: Path of a Warrior, Oath of Souls

* * *

Haruno Sakura versus Yamanaka Ino:

It was one of the most interesting things that popped out during that event. As far as the Rookie Nine were concerned, Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura had a long standing rivalry that was overshadowed by Naruto and Sasuke's. Though it wasn't as well known or as hilarious, the rivalry was often serious when it came to competition. Two women were vying for the heart of a single man, using all of their resources at their disposal.

It was amusing yet saddening part of their lives, as Naruto had remembered. Both Kunoichi aspirants back then would focus more on getting Sasuke's attention but both would fail countless times seeing as Sasuke ignored them both like a patch of grass. It was such a display of cynical humor that it brought an internal smile to Naruto's lips every. Single. Time.

As the two kunoichis walked on the floor below they sized each other with their eyes, both showed intensity and confrontation as Hayate raised his hands

"The third match, Haruno Sakura versus Yamanaka Ino, begin!"

Ino clenched her fists and went for a stance that she was taught by her father, Tsuki no Mai (Dance of the Moon). Her father taught her the basics of the taijutsu, she lowered her left arm and opened her palm. She then raised her right arm and open her right palm, and slid her right leg back, bending her left knee forward, to some of the spectators above. It looked like a power based martial arts, using the footing and the center of gravity of the user to strengthen their blows.

But to a taijutsu specialist like Gai, that stance proved to be anything but earth shattering. The spandex wearing Jounin commented on Asuma,

"I see she has started her training with the family taijutsu… This would be a fairly difficult battle with someone like Sakura."

Asuma smirked, ever since Ino was in the team, she had served as the motivational force behind the team consisting of easygoing and lazy bastards. Her motivation?

To prove that she can, to prove her team can be just as strong even without Sasuke and to prove that Ino was much more of a worthy kunoichi by Sasuke's side rather than Sakura.

Naruto leaned on the railings and simply watched in mild interest at the fight while Sasuke just stood leaning against the wall.

"Who do you think would win this fight, Sasuke?"

Sasuke didn't answer Naruto's question and remained silent. Naruto on the other hand, grinned.

"You should've seen Sakura last time when she fought one of the Oto nins. Did you see the burn marks on the Oto kunoichi's neck that Shikamaru defeated?"

Sasuke was surprised for a moment and then Naruto answered, "She did that, if you notice, she now has a small nodachi on her back, it's worth noting just how much of a power boost that is to her."

Down below, Sakura grasped the hilt of the Nodachi Naruto had given her, Tachikaze, as she gripped the sword firmly, she slowly slid the blade out of its sheathe with her right hand, with her left arm crossing with her right arm, she immediately assumed a blocking stance.

The teacher had looked at Naruto for a moment, and then to Sakura, Naruto was welling pride for some reason, something about Sakura and that blade made Kakashi ask the blonde,

"What are you so happy about, Naruto?"

Naruto gave another set of his confident grins and said, "Because Sakura is using one of my greatest works, that sword that she is using right now, is called Tachikaze. The Severing Wind, believe it or not, is one of my greatest creations to date. I created it with some storage seals and the Gogyou Fuin Kai (Five Element Seal Custom). Using it as my base seal and then a Suitoru Fuin (Absorbing Seal) at the very bottom of the hilt to absorb the chakra, the absorbed chakra then goes to another seal called the Henkei Fuin (Metamorphose Seal) connected to the base seal from there; the user is able to do what the Rikudo Sennin (Sage of Six Paths) was capable of doing…"

He paused for dramatic effect, "Master all of the five primary elements of elemental manipulation techs."

Kakashi was visibly shocked at this, such a phenomenal discovery from such a young mind! It was almost as if the Yondaime had reincarnated into his very own son!

Naruto chuckled at that as the remaining Jounin froze in thought, all of them looking quite surprised when they heard Naruto boast about a weapon he created. Kurenai was shaking however, that child that mastered Fuinjutsu and had the Bloodline of Sasayaki no Ryuusui… Not to mention a user of Kage Bunshin… No wonder Jinchuuriki were called the super soldiers of this era. They were forces of unfathomable power!

Beings of unimaginable strength that serve as the last resort and ultimately, secret weapon of a hidden village, these people that reach the level of supremacy at such an incredible rate, it was completely awe striking.

Kurenai watched in worry below as she mentioned to Asuma, "Ino… Would probably stand no chance…"

Asuma nodded grimly, "With an advantage such as that, I wonder how Ino would last in a battle against Sakura…"

Below the stands,

Ino looked serious and said to Sakura, "Sakura, for your sake, you should quit the exam now… At your current ability, you stand no chance especially against people like Sasuke-kun or even that Suna Nin… Save yourself from the danger Sakura… That's my only advice."

Sakura then said, "No… What's the use of being a ninja if you can't even take the risks? Our job involves putting ourselves on the line… I've realized it now…"

Sakura then looked at her teammates, Sasuke who was leaning back against the wall and Naruto who was leaning against the railing with a half interested emotion on her fight.

Sakura then continued, "You were always one that I looked up to Ino… But now, because Naruto made me see just how lacking I was in terms of skills on being a ninja, I changed. Right now, I'll prove to you, just how much of Naruto's words affected me and how much he was willing for me to catch up to both him and Sasuke-kun."

Sakura then brandished her Nodachi, with it, Sakura slowly swung the short sword to the side and muttered, "Tachikaze… Please guide me…"

With that, Sakura dashed towards Ino, her short sword held in reverse grip, the blade parallel to her forearm, Sakura stopped right in front of Ino and gave a mid horizontal swipe, Ino jumped and arched her back, effortlessly using a summersault and landing on the farther side of the arena. Ino then went back to her stance and then dashed at Sakura, expelling a burst of chakra from her feet, she used the chakra as a spring board and launched herself at Sakura who was surprised when Ino suddenly appeared in front of her just as she was to recover in mid swing, Sakura's eyes widened as Ino planted a palm strike directly at Sakura's cheek blasting her away from Ino's position. With that done, Ino jumped up and pumped chakra again with her feet, this time, she began displacing five handseals from her hands

"Saru, Tori, Uma, Tatsu (Monkey, Bird, Horse, Dragon)"

She could suddenly feel the weight on her feet multiply, descending on Sakura like a missile, Ino shouted,

"Gekkoudan Kyaku! (Moonlight bomber Kick)"

The pink haired girl recovered from the blow and narrowly avoided being squashed by the attack by rolling to the side. The force of the attack made a small crater below shattering the rocks underneath. The pink haired girl's daze was snapped out and then began her counterattack.

Sakura then focused chakra on her Nodachi and tapped the next seal that she wanted to try out, "Mizu no Fuuin, Kai! (Seal of Water, Release)"

Up in the stands, Naruto grinned and said, "I hope you can manage to control it Sakura, because even I can't control every element in that sword."

As he said that, Sakura immediately swung the sword to her side, water began to spout from the base of the short sword's blade and then began to spout outwards uncontrollably, a water dragon took form as it began to swirl upwards and then down to Sakura, letting out a furious torrent that seemed to roar, Sakura out of fear, stepped back as the water dragon plummeted to the stone floor below, leaving behind a small crater and pierced through stone with its very intense pressure. Sakura paled as she saw the damage done by the dragon, squirming and roaring furiously in its wake as it began to attack everything in sight.

"Shit…" Naruto muttered as the dragon began rampaging around the arena, Sakura shouted,

"Stop!"

Ino then dodged to the side as the beast descended to her from above. As it began to descend deeper into the ground. With Sakura still looking dazed, Ino saw the perfect opportunity to attack, gathering chakra with her feet, she shoot off straight to Sakura and spun her body around, holding two kunai in her hands, she shouted,

"Getsushouzan! (Moon Strike Slash)"

Ino connected to Sakura as she failed to notice Ino's drill like attack coming straight at her, Sakura fell back as her abdomen and her arms were cut. Blood poured out from Sakura's wounds as she cringed in pain and held Tachikaze firmly in her grasp she stumbled but regained her footing

Just as Ino was about to charge at Sakura with another attack, she was stopped when the ground beneath had burst out with the water dragon still there, Sakura was still holding Tachikaze firmly now with both hands as she began to shake when she felt the weight of the sword seem to double.

Sakura started to breathe heavy desperately holding the sword in her hands, she could feel her chakra draining like a damn that had burst, it was draining! She was forcing her to control the flow of her chakra to the sword. The sudden pull was so stressful that she was shaking, exhaustion was taking over, and Ino still had the advantage over her. She looked up to her teammates who merely watched her, both Naruto and Sasuke responded by nodding their heads and giving a knowing smile, by Sasuke and a confident grin from Naruto.

A small smile had escaped her lips as she muttered, "Seek and you shall find."

Almost immediately, the water dragon had dissipated, Sakura had solved her problem when she realized that she had to stop the flow of chakra to the sword. Once the connection to the sword severed, the dragon left behind a rather long blade for her Nodachi, it became straight and light blue in colour, a design of a spiralling dark blue dragon had coiled around the handle with the head of the beast resting against the base of her blade.

"Suiryuu: Ni no Kata (Water Dragon: Second Form)" Sakura then slashed the blade downwards creating a sickle like projectile made of pure water straight to Ino who dodged the attack that had cut the wall below the bleachers clean, the water generated around the light blue katana and then Sakura had thrust her sword down on the stone floor.

Up in the stands, Naruto's mildly interested emotion switched to a serious one as he leaned closer, he then said, "This is interesting…"

"What?" His teammate asked, Kakashi leaned in closer to hear what the blonde had to say,

"I never imagined that Tachikaze had that kind of effect…" Naruto said as he frowned,

"What kind?" Sasuke further inquired, if Sakura was able to do that effect, his weapon would be able to as well…

"Well, I did say that the user of Tachikaze would be able to manipulate all five base elements that make a jutsu. What I didn't know was that it can mix these said elements together and form a new one, I think there is a lot more to study about the Henkei Fuin that Jiraiya and I developed. I haven't had the chance to fully test the seal since I could never control the Mizu no Fuin because of my poor control. But now, seeing as Sakura has the most perfect control out of the three of us, I can finally see just to what extent is the potential this thing has."

Seeing the fight below, Naruto saw how the water began to solidify in the air, the area around Sakura began to sparkle and grow cold, Sakura then shouted,

"Tsurara no Mai: Shi! (Dance of the Icicles: Initial)"

A flurry of icicles formed from beneath Sakura's feet forming a straight line towards Ino, the sharp icicles traced their way up to the said Kunoichi who began to dodge the flow of pointy icicles of death, up in the stands, Asuma grabbed the side rails of the bleachers and held it firmly looking at the battle below.

"I see… So with the Henkei Fuin, not only does it allow complete control of all base elements, it also allows the ability to mix different elements all together… I can't imagine all the amalgam that the weapon has… Naruto, you created the perfect weapon…" Hiruzen muttered in his VIP room, looking in awe just how much power that one sword had.

The battle in the arena below was getting intense, as the trail of Icicles began to grow unstable and shatter, Sakura then shouted, "Ban! (Final)"

The icicles that were rooted on the ground, immediately fired from the ground it was on and was shot towards Ino. In surprise, Ino evaded almost every blow that was sent to her, but one manage to hit her shoulder, Ino stopped as she staggered back, she gave a painful yelp and stumbled, Ino then grabbed the offending ice from her shoulders and yanked it off, feeling the pain as she pulled off the said spear like object.

As Sakura had suddenly descended upon her, Ino forced her body to move to the side evading a falling vertical slash.

The floor that Ino once stood wasn't as lucky as a batch of icicles popped up and went upwards. Sakura turned her head towards Ino, panting heavily, Ino said to her, "Damn it Sakura all the offense you dished out almost had me killed!"

Sakura answered, "But you didn't die, so it's all right."

Ino held her head out of frustration and said, "What the hell kind of attitude is that!? You've been hanging around Naruto too much!"

Up in the bleachers, Naruto's vein on his forehead enlarged and grew irate as he said to Ino, "What the hell, you freakin' dominatrix! I've got half a mind to tell you that I'm responsible in which techniques that I do!"

Ino shouted at the bottom straight to her fellow blonde, "Says the guy who blasted a leaf nin straight through a concrete wall! And what the hell!? I'm a dominatrix!? I've got a bone to pick with you later on, chibi!"

Naruto now was getting angrier, shouted leaning further in to the railings, "Bring it on, you BDSM lover! My fists would be more than enough to handle your whip! By the by, Ino-_chan_ your hair sucks!"

"WHAT!? THAT'S IT UZUMAKI, WHEN I WIN THIS MATCH, I'LL BEAT YOU UP WHEN I GET THERE! LET ME REMIND YOU, THAT I ALWAYS USE THE BEST HAIR CARE PRODUCTS!"

Neji seemed to cough at that one but a lot of people didn't notice, nor they didn't seem to care…

"THEN DON'T CALL ME SHORT YOU STUPID BLONDE!"

"WELL, YOU'RE BLONDE TOO, YOU IDIOT!"

"DON'T PUT ME IN THE SAME CATEGORY AS YOU, YOU FUCKING TWAT!"

As the squabble between Naruto and Ino continued, the rest were either having a huge sweatdrop on their foreheads or blushing mad from Naruto's choice of colourful words to say the least.

"Ooooh! My youthful ears cannot stand this much profanity anymore, Gai-sensei! Yosh! Now that we have heard such unyouthful words, our team now must run around Konoha fifty times in retribution! If we can't do that then we'll do four hundred squats and if we can't do that…"

To this, Neji and Tenten glared at Lee and then glared at Naruto.

Sakura however, had enough of the shenanigans both blondes were dishing out and literally yelled at Naruto,

"NARUTO! IF YOU DON'T LET ME FINISH THIS FIGHT, I SWEAR TO GOD I'LL CASTRATE YOU AND POUR DOWN ACID ON YOU WHILE YOU'RE ASLEEP!"

To this, Naruto quietly eeped and had shut up.

Sasuke merely chuckled and Naruto, in turn, glared at Sasuke and said, "Shut it, duck ass."

"Geez, I can't believe he's the smartest out of our generation… He really should act more like one." Sakura complained, as she widened her base and held the Nodachi in a simple Battojutsu stance,

Ino grinned and turned her back from the other blonde, "That's just like him though, and he's been trash talking ever since we were kids."

To this Ino grabbed a very unique set of weapons, flower petals.

"What are you going to do with those?" Asked Sakura, as Ino then tossed the petals into the air unceremoniously, she then grinned and said to Sakura, "Watch, Ninpo: Senbonzakura! (Ninja Art: Thousand Cherry Blossoms)"

The flow of falling flower petals steadied themselves and without much of an afterthought, Ino waved her hand and the flow of cherry blossoms seemed to multiply, as it began to surround her body. The dancing cherry blossoms looked very vibrant that moment, as it swivelled and danced around Ino. Sakura looked out in awe of the very aesthetic view she was receiving, but quickly, she concentrated back to the battle with her friend and long time rival.

Small glitters of ice began to flow around Sakura's sword, its cold mist emitting at the base of the blade, it began to grow less graceful than it was, the ice that began to collect at the sword formed and created one huge icicle that covered Sakura's sword, it began to deform as Sakura mentioned,

"Hyourinmaru (Ice Ring)!"

Then Sakura pointing the tip of the icicle straight at the flow of cherry blossoms, a ring of ice circulated the tip of the icicle and mist began to circulate around it going fast and beginning its attack. Sakura's jutsu formed a dragon's head made of ice as it then formed its long slender body coiling and twisting until finally making its way towards the whirlwind of cherry blossoms that reacted immediately and dashed towards the ice dragon.

Up in the stands, Kakashi asked his recently discovered prodigy of a student,

"I have to wonder though, just how can Sakura do those complex jutsus without even an experience in using them?"

To this Naruto held out an all knowing face and boasted, "Well, aside from the seals that I placed on the handle, I also placed seals on the base of the blade itself under the handle. The seals inside the handle are what you call, the knowledge storage seals, or, as I would like to call them, jinchi no kami (god of wisdom and benevolence). That seal is designed to impart, 'programmed chakra' that initiates the use of techs, by flowing the programmed chakra into the muscles and nerves initiating muscle memory and neuro-motor output, it's safe to say that ANYONE can use them. Unless of course, I reprogram the whole thing just in case, it's a fail safe after all."

To this, Kakashi stood aghast, "You really thought this over, didn't you?"

Naruto held out his chest a little and gave a small thump.

"Of course! I've got a back up seal that's stored in the tsuba, if by chance, someone steals and uses it against me, I can activate it by remote and therefore, nullify all the programmed seals and set them off to self-destruct!"

Sasuke muttered to Naruto, "You do know that you're turning more obnoxious by the minute, right? And call me stupid, but implanting programmed chakra that's _foreign_ might I add, has got to have side effects to it!"

Naruto looked at him with the expression that said, "And this is news to me, how?"

Sasuke hung his head low and gave a sigh, "You know there is one, right?"

Naruto sheepishly scratched the back of his head, "Ehehe… Well, Tachikaze is designed for people with high chakra capacity, and the programmed chakra can't be used as an energy input, since it infuses the body with the knowledge on how to do the jutsus. Chakra exhaustion is one thing, however, if chakra depletion triggers, the energy required for the Tachikaze to maintain form is gone, thus brings us to the problem."

Naruto then pointed to Sakura, "Since Tachikaze needs energy to maintain form, it doesn't have an off switch unless Sakura deactivates it. If it continues beyond Sakura's capacity, well… Let's just say that the weapon will use the nutrients and electrolytes in Sakura's body as energy assuming she survives chakra depletion of course."

Kakashi's visible eye widened, having realize what Naruto had meant with his explanation, "So basically… The sword would kill off cells to maintain its form when it doesn't have chakra? It will run on bioelectricity ASSUMING she doesn't die until she deactivates it?"

Naruto nervously laughed at that, "Ehehehe… Pretty much…"

Kakashi could feel a headache coming sooner than he expected, "Naruto after the fights are over, you and I are going to have a long talk…"

"Does it involve ramen? I swear I could really use one right now, what with being stuck in the woods for three days and all, I'm starting to feel the effects of my withdrawal…"

"No." Kakashi deadpanned, Naruto snapped his fingers in dismay.

Below at the arena once again, the dancing flower petals collided with the ice dragon, effectively pushing each other back with as much force as possible. Ripping each other to sheds.

The ice dragon forcing its way through the myriad of sharp petals, with its fierce roar was trying to force itself through the wave of sharp petals, the were chipping the ice dragon but not before the dragon freezing the petals that touch it.

The chipping increased as Ino saw how the ice dragon slowing down, raising her hand, she the petals obeyed her command and rose up and then slamming it down on the ice dragon. The clash of the two jutsu resulted in shattering both, as the remaining petals began to freeze by the sudden spread of ice that came from the ice dragon on both sides, Sakura and Ino, both charged at the same time as the petals' effect was lost. Falling harmlessly on the floor, both were tired, nearing their limits, but both women persevered, they could feel everything slow down as their hearts started pounding louder… Sakura had let go of Tachikaze,

It was in that moment, that everyone was watching the fight closely, everything was in their fight. Both Sakura and Ino dashed at each other their fists cocked back as they showed emotions of determination and fortitude, pain was everywhere, as they yelled each other's name.

"SAKURA!"

"INO!"

"**RRRAAAAAAHHHHH!"**

Both fighters had made it in each other's range and flung their fists at the same time and before their fists had made contact to their designated targets, Tachikaze had dispelled itself and a huge plume of smoke had covered the area…

There was silence, anticipation and anxiety, all of the witnesses of the battle were tense, they were at the edge of their seats as it were, dying to know who had won…

It was then that two figures flung from the smoke, both forms landed on the ground, being forced back from the inside, both were covered in smoke.

As the smoke cleared, two figures were seen sprawled on the ground, unconscious,

Hayate had checked each girl's pulse and raised his arm to make his decision,

"Due to a double knock out, the match between Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino is considered, a draw!"

Naruto only raised his eyebrow and said, "Well, I didn't expect for Sakura to win this in the first place, but truth be told, I never even expected she'd cause a tie."

Kurenai had raised an eyebrow at that.

"But compared to Ino, Sakura had the advantage, her jutsus were devastating. Just how did you come up with that?"

Naruto held one index finger upwards and said, "He who cannot control his power, has lost already from the beginning."

Having said that, Naruto continued, "Although Sakura had full capabilities in controlling Tachikaze's techs, she didn't have enough control, just from accessing the Mizu no Fuin, it took a lot out of her in controlling it. Truthfully when Sakura accessed the second hardest form of Tachikaze, I was surprised that she was able to stabilize the flow and even allow for the maximal use of the Henkei no Fuin, which I could never have done despite being its sole creator, that and the fact that Ino surprised me in her performance in a taijutsu style that was developed by her family and a jutsu that wasn't related to the all or nothing Shintenshin (Mind Body Transfer)."

Both Kakashi and Asuma had picked up their unconscious charges, all the while, the chain smoking Jounin said to Kakashi, "Your team is something else, Kakashi."

Kakashi gave an eye smile and said, "They're a bunch of hotshots but they get the job done quite nicely."

With that, both jounins placed them on the side and had permitted the proctor to continue the fight,

As the screen began to randomize the names again, Sasuke asked his blonde teammate, "What will be Guren Zanpaku's ability?"

Naruto merely gave a dismissive answer, "Guren Zanpaku isn't a weapon made for anybody Sasuke, it is specifically designed for users like you. You'll find out in due time."

With that, the names had reached a stop and determined the next set of combatants:

Sabaku no Temari vs Tenten:

Both fighters jumped down and grinned, Tenten was flexing her right arm and her neck, she held out two scrolls from her pocket, she began flipping it in midair as she said, "Damn, after seeing that fight, I am so fired up right now!"

Temari seemed to agree to the bun haired girl as well, the fight between the two kunoichi was a display of power, she had never heard of a Yamanaka who had not used her family jutsu in battle.

Then again, that kind of jutsu was rather unpractical in one-on-one duels, the Shintenshin, was a jutsu that mainly coincides with other jutsu, unless that Yamanaka had a binding jutsu to use so that she could use it, then there was not much of a point in using Shintenshin.

Tenten stretched her sides as she prepared for her fight, as she finished her stretch, she grabbed two scrolls from her pouch, a red one with her left hand, and a blue one on her right. She crouched low waiting for the signal from Hayate a start

"The fourth bout of the preliminary battles, Sabaku no Temari vs Tenten… Begin!"

Hayate then swung his arm down and retreated back, Tenten was quick to act, unsealing the scroll on her left, a chained blade came out darting its way to Temari.

The blonde girl simply raised her hand and deflected the shot of the bladed chain running past her.

Tenten, already in advancement, swung the chain to her right, effectively beginning to wrap around the Desert girl. With a succeeding motion, Tenten jumped and pulled the chain back effectively binding Temari straight to her, with a fluid motion of her right hand, she unsealed the scroll and out came a long Katana almost the same as her height.

Still in midair, Tenten's target approached closer and closer, and she swung the Katana to her abdomen, effectively cutting the said girl in half.

Everyone looked at the scene with a gruesome expression of shock and fear. But was then replaced when the girl that was supposedly cleaved in half was replaced by a swirl of wind that dissipated. The long chain going loose…

"I see…" Naruto trailed. Sasuke nodded and said, "That jutsu that she just did earlier when that thick eyebrow's teammate brandished the chain, it was a two part jutsu."

"By using the wind as a medium, she made it appear to be solid with her chakra and then used it as a substitution when that girl slashed her."

Naruto was impressed, "Ingenious, if I do say so myself."

Rock Lee, who had suddenly appeared by Naruto's side, asked,

"But that type of chakra control… It's beyond genin level… Isn't it almost impossible to do?"

Sasuke shook his head, "No, I've seen a more complicated version of the Kawarimi (Substitution), I've only seen it once, but it was enough to make me astonished."

Sasuke continued, "When we fought that snake user in the forest of death, he used it against me when I tied him up and used my Ryuuka no Jutsu (Dragon Fire Technique). He used it without seals and then replaced himself with an object that wasn't consistent on the floor of the forest of death. He substituted himself with mud…"

"If that's the case, then it must've been a last resort technique to evade oncoming attacks." Naruto answered

Sasuke nodded, "It was, the chakra he used was absurd… I've seen it with my Sharingan."

Down below, Temari had appeared beside the giant hand statue, her gigantic fan opened to reveal one purple circle.

"Pretty good, little girl… You're a perfect weapon mistress, it's too bad compared to me, weapons are useless…"

Tenten frowned but then raised her left eyebrow, "Oh? Did I hear you right? Weapons are useless against you? Well then, I might have something that will change your mind…"

With that, Tenten grabbed another scroll and said, "If I can't hit you with pinpoint accuracy, might as well be gung-ho about it and go all out... With a bang!"

With that, Tenten unfurled the scroll and twirled it, biting her free thumb she slid it on the white sheet of paper and slammed the scroll with her free hand. A huge cloud of smoke enveloped the part of the arena where Tenten stood still.

Temari watched in anticipation as she waited for Tenten to strike.

There was silence, everyone up on the bleachers looked on waiting for anything to happen.

The cloud of smoke danced around the arena, not giving a sign to clear up. Temari now looked wary for the moment. Everything was calm…

A small sound of clunking metal was heard, it was then that Temari's eyes widened as a gigantic shuriken flew straight to her.

It was fast, the minute that Temari saw the giant Shuriken she jumped. She had not the time to prepare a technique so she jumped instead.

Another giant buzzing death came at her this time, while she was still in midair, gritting her teeth, she swung her fan sideways and letting the wind wrap around her like a cocoon.

The giant Shuriken made contact and shattered upon contact with the swirling vortex of the wind, but Temari looked shocked however when she saw that the shuriken was peppered with exploding tags, the bun haired girl purposely _made_ the shuriken brittle so that it can turn to shrapnel…

The giant shuriken then ignited in a volley of flames and smoke surrounding Temari's area. The face painted boy with the puppet on his back looked on worriedly as a figure descended on the floor, covered in smoke.

The smoke from Tenten's area gone, and revealed a kunoichi armed to the teeth, five Katana were strapped on the back of her waist, the handles were protruding to the right showing five different sizes, leather bindings on each of her arms, armed with Kunai per each bind, that were wrapped in explosive notes, three claw like weapons on each of her hands. Grieves on her ankles that had blades protruding back, and a strange mechanism on her left forearm. Gigantic prayer beads on her right waist, the only thing seemingly different from her garb, and a gigantic shoulder guard on her left arm, arching and covering the said arm.

Her mouth was covered with a black cloth mask giving of an air of mystery of the abilities of her now unleashed technique

"Henge: Sensou no Gejutsu (Transformation: The Art of War)"

Tenten mentioned, Naruto shouted from the bleachers,

"You know Tenten, that's the last time I'll be telling you about my family history; seriously, you're just as bad as Teme! Don't you have anything original at all? I mean, I can understand your family was one of our retainers and all…"

Tenten quickly replied, "As a retainer of the Uzumaki Clan, I am given with the techniques that come from my family, along with our smith techniques… So you don't have to criticize my way of fighting you idiot!"

Naruto was silenced after that,

Sasuke chuckled in amusement for the second time; Naruto gave him the finger this time for good measure.

Tenten sighed, "Agh, I wanted this technique to be revealed at the last part of the exam… I guess I can't help it now…"

With that, Tenten dashed at her opponent her claws ready, she pounced on Temari, who seem to evade just in the nick of time when the claw came close to her chest, Temari stumbled back as she began to evade every swipe that Tenten made. Not one to let up, Tenten opened her hands and the claws retracted to its respectful arm guards, Tenten grabbed a kunai from her left shoulder and loaded it into the strange mechanism that was on her left arm. She cocked back a switch from the object and aimed it at Temari.

Pulling the trigger with her adjacent arm, the Kunai flew at speeds faster than a human could throw. Temari blocked with her fan as she was blown away from the force of the explosion.

She gritted her teeth, _'Damn… And she has six more shots left with that thing… I need to bide my time to do this technique properly…'_

Temari immediately thought up of a plan.

With a smirk underneath the fan, she told Tenten, "You seem to act like that Uzumaki from earlier, you got some pretty impressive toys…"

Tenten laughed a little and said, "Oh, I can't compare to that guy, his creations are much more complex. Besides, he's a prodigy in the Sealing Arts, and combined with his training with my father in blacksmith, he's the best specialized weapons maker in this village. I don't do Fuinjutsu that well. The only thing that Naruto taught me about it was storage seals and exploding notes. I couldn't get far with it, seems you need a very technical amount of knowledge in that field. So I just came up with ingenuity and a little elbow grease and came up with this… Although technically, I was going to boast this to the blonde idiot cradling himself on the rails, but he actually proved to me that he was an Alpha, so I lost all my bragging rights."

With that, Tenten loaded up another Kunai to her launcher, Temari then swung her fan around creating a torrent of wind heading straight to Tenten.

"Sorry, sand girl, but even with your breeze, this launcher is way too powerful in firing off shots."

With that, she fired the kunai straight through the wind, the sickling winds then cut the kunai that went through and exploded in the middle of its path.

Tenten then advanced, drawing out two of her swords, a Tanto and a Wakizashi. She rolled on the ground and swiped the blades upward when she got close to Temari.

Temari, narrowly evaded the blow as the sword tore through her clothing and made a fresh cut on the left of her chest. Above in the stands, Kakashi was cheering,

"Go Tenten!"

Naruto looked at his teacher as did the rest of the people inside, they all had a sweatdrop at the back of their heads while Naruto was laughing.

"Woah, never thought this could turn out… Sexy for some reason…" Shikamaru muttered, looking down below, while his ear was pulled back from an already awakened Ino.

"Dah! Damnit, Ino! What was that for!?" Whined the irate pineapple headed chuunin hopeful.

"Damn pervert!" Ino shouted pulling back Shikamaru's ear more.

"Ouch! Damnit, woman! Let go!"

Kakashi internally smiled, ah how he loved messing with people's heads. Naruto though, was laughing as he got a hold of what his teacher was doing.

Down below, Tenten smirked,

"So you can only do your wind jutsu when you have the sufficient time to do so, although you are an effective long range fighter, the time interval it takes for you to swing that thing is long, even though it is mere seconds apart, I can already get close to you before you could do another one… But before I mop the floor with you, let me tell you this… That blonde idiot who made Tachikaze…"

Tenten pointed to Naruto who seemed unfazed by the insult

"Made a prototype invention of it, though it was a success, he deemed it unwieldy because back then he couldn't find a way to use any seal that harmonized every element on a single sword, until he decided to make a seal that is… He's very thorough about it. But I hate having a weapon that's left unused so I pleaded for him to give it to me, that was roughly two years ago."

Tenten flipped the tanto on her left hand in mid air and said, "These babies have different abilities, although its only one per sword, compared to the real Tachikaze, this doesn't have the perfect amalgam of mixing the elemental chakras together."

Tenten then held the Tanto in a reverse grip and then struck down the tanto on the ground.

The earth beneath began to shake, and Temari immediately, jumped, quickly spreading out her fan she kneeled on the object and began to glide over the fissure. Tenten who know jumped up and sheathed her Tanto, holding the Wakizashi in her hands, water began to collect in particles finally forming an orb over the tip of the wakizashi, Tenten swung the blade down, releasing a torrent of water, Tenten shouted,

"Suiton: Mizuhebi! (Water Release: Water Snake)"

The high pressure water attack slithered in midair, making its way towards Temari, who dodged the blow by steering her fan to the left, once she landed on the ground, Tenten loaded another kunai to her launcher and fired at Temari, who dashed like her life depended on it. As she ran she scaled the wall and began her ascent, narrowly evading the explosion on her back.

She turned her head and brandished her giant fan, she already had seen through how much that form can use, based from what she saw from that pink haired girl, and from what that bun girl said, the weapons were prototypes, which meant one thing,

It was inferior compared to the more refined version of the Tachikaze. It was something that she had found, the fatal weakness of the prototype of Tachikaze.

As Tenten swung her wakizashi another water snake went by her.

Temari's eyes flinched for a second, she had found that weakness.

It was predictability.

Each sword was assigned per element and since the bun girl had used the earth and water element, that meant that before the girl could pull out the fire type blade, she would have dealt the blow.

So if the first sword drawn was the tanto, and it was earth, the wakizashi was water, than that meant the normal sized Katana would be a fire type, the slightly longer nodachi was wind based and the zanbatou length Katana was a lightning type…

Temari grinned putting the pieces altogether, it made sense; the swords were arranged in ascending order on to which they are strong against.

As she approached the weapons mistress in mid-air, she swung her fan forward, blocking the wakizashi. Temari then looked at Tenten's free right hand grabbing for the middle blade. Her eyes widened, it was the fire type blade…

Out of desperation, Temari grabbed Tenten's right hand preventing the girl from brandishing the left sword. Temari then let go of her fan and kicked it, swinging it fully open.

With that, Tenten saw the fan with it wide open. A few seconds later, it circulated around itself in a clockwise motion, Temari vanished…

'_Shunshin no Jutsu!?'_ Tenten's eyes immediately widened, as she heard the sound of footwear tapping on the back, She turned around, still in mid-air, and saw Temari, with her fan wide open…

Already in mid swing…

From the rails, Naruto said, "It's over… Tenten lost."

With that, he looked at the bun haired girl as she was met with a furious torrent of wind, encircling Tenten and began to cut her.

Temari was panting, she never expected the Konoha Ninja force to be so competent… If they were seriously going to face more opponents like them with the upcoming invasion, then chances are it will be one hell of a mountain to climb add to the fact the prized Uchiha and the blonde prodigy from that scarecrow looking Jounin, Temari was seriously considering if she should participate or not.

"Ninpo: Kamaitachi… (Ninja Art: Sickling Winds)"

Temari muttered the word of the technique between deep breaths of exhaustion, as she looked up, the vicious wind dying down. Tenten fell on the floor, alive but unconscious.

"Winner of the fourth match, Sabaku no Temari of the Hidden Sand."

With that said, a team of medics ran by Tenten's side and placed her delicately on the stretcher, once she was out of sight, Temari was struggling to get up on the stands, Baki was trembling…Almost all of the matches that just commenced, it all had some connection to that boy…

It was all far too bone chilling, an Uzumaki, feared and heralded as the most coveted bloodline that far outclasses even the Uchiha, a clan that had been listed as one of the few to have controlled the nine bijuu. Here was the boy standing before him, it sent an all too nightmarish moment for him. He had already foreseen the result of the invasion…

It would be a tremendous loss. The Kazekage must take note of the recent turn of events! This type of information must be informed in order to device a counter strategy if they were to follow through with this invasion!

The screen had came up again, and began to jumble names to find out the next set of contestants.

As the names came up, Naruto looked at the remaining combatants.

There was still Kabuto's remaining teammate, the one with the shades, who was patiently waiting for his turn to come up, Neji who was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and eyes closed.

Naruto didn't know why, but the sight of Neji being like that was pissing him off, he looked to his left and found Sasuke to be doing the same.

Now he knew the reason why he was getting angry, these two were certainly alike.

Naruto then noticed Chouji who was looking nervous as was Hinata.

He knew the reason why they were fidgeting most of the remaining contenders are on a fairly competent level, and they were getting unsure of their abilities as well. By now the names came to a stop

All the spectators looked on at the fifth match:

Akado Yoroi VS Uchiha Sasuke

Miraculously, Sakura was now up as well after that exhausting battle. Seeing as the love of her life was now going down the arena, two of Sasuke unofficial cheerleaders (Sakura and Ino) shouted,

"Wah! Go, Sasuke-kun! Kick his ass!"

Naruto, Shikamaru and Chouji flinched as they were in hearing distance of the two, Kakashi was oddly enough, wearing earplugs as he read his very cherished porn book, while Asuma was covering his ears with his hands.

Now normally, Naruto wouldn't have much bothered with it, seeing as Sakura and Ino WERE fangirls of the androgynous male. Truthfully? He didn't give a flying fuck about it. He wasn't affected in any sort of way. That is, when the people start comparing them, now they'll have problems. Naruto isn't normally fazed at what people think about him. He was numb to mindless criticism when he was seven. That and he heard a lot worse coming from the drunken villager than from fan girls.

Much to his ire, he hated being compared, yet as if the people were psychic, they were constantly pitting him against the Uchiha, saying that Sasuke will get far with his achievements while Naruto was likely to die in a D-Rank mission painting a fence.

But now, as he had proved to the onlookers recently in the battle he undertook. The people were proven wrong about the blonde, that they were sorely mistaken about the village pariah. So it came to pass that he didn't care as long as it doesn't bother him with his ministrations. And when something impedes him from something that interests him, the normal reaction from the blonde was to shout with a mouthful of curses and vent it on the doer of the act.

The blonde then said to the two shrieking women at the back,

"**QUIET YOU BUNCH OF FUCKING HARPIES!"**

That earned a quick jab to the face by both girls that sent Naruto flinging across the bleachers and hitting the giant hand seal statue.

When the smoke cleared, they saw Naruto covered by rubble with a bleeding forehead, as he went back to the stands, he stood far away from the two shrieking women as possible.

Yeesh, these women were scary!

Kiba, who decided to jab Naruto with his recent undertakings with the opposite gender playfully elbowed him to the gut and said,

"So, Naruto how was your day?"

Naruto could only utter to the Inuzuka boy,

"Bite me."

With that, Hayate had started the match.

To be continued…

* * *

Jutsu List:

Gekkoudan Kyaku (Moonlight Bomber Kick) Mid air drop kick, based this move from a series most anime fans may know, if you give Ino a scarf and a certain mask/helmet you'd get the idea. This is basically a high powered kick (boosted by Chakra)

Getsushouzan (Moon Strike Slash) A move that acts like drill launched to the enemy, the user spins like one and anyone caught in the middle of its trajectory is torn to shreds, unlike Tsuuga, where the practitioner uses claws and fairly longer distance, this one has a shorter range and uses weapons. Also instead of using chakra, the user heavily relies on torque of their spin to do more damage rather than use chakra to force their spin.

Suiryu: Ni no Kata (Water Dragon: Second Form) The form of the Tachikaze when the wielder assumes the second seal of the blade, sword that converts chakra to a torrent of high pressure that can even cut through solid steel, more on the forms of Tachikaze will be revealed as the series progresses

Tsurara no Mai: Shi (Dance of Icicles: Initial) A row of icicles rise from the ground, attacking the enemy that the user wishes, a starting technique that is further strengthened with its very deadly succession move...

Tsurara no Mai: Ban (Final) The technique then scatters the icicles and launch them like projectiles to the enemy at high speeds. In order to perform this, the user must activate 'Tsurara no Mai: Shi' first.

Ninpo: Senbonzakura (One Thousand Cherry Blossoms) I know, I know, rip off from bleach. User gathers several cherry blossoms at her palms and with the principle of Shuriken Kage Bunshin, she sharpens and multiplies the petals to degree that it becomes both a near perfect offense and defense.

Hyourinmaru (Ice Ring) Another rip off from bleach. Compared to the scattered Senbonzakura, Hyourinmaru is more concentrated, and deadly when it hits, it can freeze anything it touches to a degree. The Mizu no Fuin's Ougi.

Henge: Sensou no Gejutsu (Transform: Art of War) Basically, "Suit up! no Jutsu", Tenten equips herself with armor and a five swords on her back all in differing sizes. A kunai launcher that has a throwing force of a mule kick, and seven, exploding Kunai strapped on the arms, the prayer beads are actually gunpowder bombs for small tactical explosions, and the grieves are armed with a curved blade at the ankles to do significant damages if the user uses kicks as one of her movesets.

Ninpo: Kamaitachi (Ninja Art: Sickling winds) A high pressure wind attack, can cause multiple cuts in a form of a crescent wave or sickle hence, sickling winds

I forgot about this one from the last chapter:

Huoutenku (Heaven Phoenix Drive)- Not to be mistaken with Hiten Shoyoku (Sky Soaring Drive). Localized in America as Rising Phoenix from the tales game, actually, it is the more modernized version, Cress Albane has the higher version named Huou Tenshokyaku (Phoenix Ranging Imperial Kick) Thats basically a combination of Hienrenkyaku (Swallow Dance) and Huoutenku (Rising Phoenix). Basically, the user lunges at the opponent in flames the image of a phoenix surrounds the user and blows the user away in a fiery kick.

Chapter Preview:

_Sasuke's eyes darted to the handle of Guren Zanpaku as it gave of a certain feeling of dominance. Sasuke then shifted his gaze to his opponent, Sharingan eyes blazing. He grabbed the base of the crescent blade and stretched it, the chain brandished and Sasuke began swinging the blade..._

_Allthe while, Guren Zanpaku gave an ominous red glow..._

Woohoo! Third Chapter! I didn't know people would embrace this… It's been a tryout and I've been doing rough drafts, most of the beta-readers I've sent messages didn't reply (Kinda sad… I wish I had a beta-reader… If any of you are interested E-Mail me!)

Anyways, I've squeezing all of the creative juice I could muster on almost all of my fics… Crossing the river gates is 80 percent complete, one more scene and it's finished, the Last Draconian 2 is a rough 20 percent and Existence 3 is 60 percent. Kuroi Kaze will be continued to be written and I'll start with it next week.


	4. Crush the Reaper

The Flowing Water's Whisperings

* * *

Chapter Four: Crush the Reaper

* * *

Power is an insatiable obsession. Nothing stops it, nothing controls it. It has been a part of human history since the beginning. Power is the definitive proof of superiority; those who deserve to bear its fruits are therefore, superior. The weak are the stepping stones of this pyramid. If one does not strive for power, then he shall be stepped on by those who do. Existence means nothing if there is no significance in value of one's self.

This has been the code of ethics to young Sasuke ever since he was six. He was worthless when he is weak, but significant when he is strong. He was an advocate of the law of nature; the strong shall live, the weak shall die.

He had also lived in the code, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

To him, justice means a punishment befitting to a criminal. If one commits a crime, then an appropriate punishment is in order. Vengeance is no stranger to this than redemption is.

To that, he had sworn on the graves of his clan members, that he shall avenge them, seek the monster that had killed them and kill all the associates that involved themselves with _him_.

With a look of apathy, Uchiha Sasuke descended on the flight of stairs, gazing stoically on Akado Yoroi. He held Guren Zanpaku, the scarlet wavy kusarigama, firmly with his right hand.

As the proctor of the exam gave the signal to start…

Within mere milliseconds, Sasuke had immediately closed in on Yoroi, this was his chance. This was his stepping stone to closer and closer to his brother.

Naruto noticed the sudden speed that Sasuke had used and with his mind, he had concluded it as he said, "Teme is pulling out all the stops."

Kiba who had heard the blonde, glanced to his side and noticed Naruto's frown, with a curious look, he asked the blonde, "Why are you frowning?"

Naruto didn't answer, instead, he focused on the battle below.

With a swing from the Kusarigama, sideways, Yoroi had jumped and stepped back, the cloth that covered his abdomen was shredded by the sharp crescent blade. Yoroi cursed, his technique won't work if he couldn't get close.

Sasuke, not skipping a beat, jumped up, his Kusarigama raised. Descending towards Yoroi like a bullet, Sasuke swung his right arm that held the Kusarigama.

Yoroi, grabbed a kunai from his pouch and parried the blow. Sparks flew as metal clashed against metal.

With an immediate counter, Yoroi reached out with his free arm, and grabbed Sasuke by the ankle. Sasuke, while still in midair, grabbed the base of the crescent blade and extended pulled it out, revealing a chain that's longer than its handle.

The raven haired boy then tangled the chain, catching the outstretched hand. Sasuke then arched his back and flipped down on the floor, he then pulled the chain and threw Yoroi down with an unconventional hip toss.

Once Yoroi was down Sasuke followed it up with a dropping heel kick to the stomach. But was immediately grabbed by Yoroi's arm. Sasuke cursed, going for a set of handseals, he stopped at Tora and breathed in.

"Katon: Housenka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Mythical Fire Flower Skill)"

Fire consumed Sasuke's opponent, as he was pelted with small fireballs.

As the fire died down, the man that was taught to be burned to a crisp was replaced with a log.

Up in the rails, Naruto held his nose up and pouted, "And they say I'm irresponsible with my techniques."

Ino shouted from the other side, "Well, you are!"

Naruto merely said, "At least that guy lived! He was just thrown out of the arena. Sasuke's got no reservations in roasting this guy!"

Naruto then pointed to the guy that was on the roof who was annoyed he was spotted. The blonde, looked Yoroi in indifference and said, "Oi, baka, you're too obvious in your stealth capabilities, even teme there could have seen you because you cast your shadow below."

And on cue, Sasuke had appeared immediately in front of Yoroi from the rooftop, Sharingan eyes flaring to life.

"Not good at hiding are you?" Sasuke asked as he slammed his foot directly at the man's jaw, flinging the man back as he staggered and lost his control.

He dropped below on the floor but quickly recovered stepping back seeing Sasuke deployed the blade of his Kusarigama below. The blade pierced the floor below, the chain following suit.

Yoroi, then looked up again, seeing Sasuke's foot was centimetres away to his face. Yoroi tried to block but found that he couldn't do so as Sasuke pierced the defensive posture.

Yoroi staggered back and Sasuke spun around, aiming a spin kick at Yoroi's abdomen, forcing the said man to side step as it hit his side. Sasuke wasn't done yet, as he then punched Yoroi in the gut forcing the man up slightly and then another punch aimed, this time to his cheek.

Sasuke's eyes darted to the handle of Guren Zanpaku as it gave of a certain feeling of dominance. Sasuke then shifted his gaze to his opponent, Sharingan eyes blazing. He grabbed the base of the crescent blade and stretched it, the chain brandished and Sasuke began spinning the blade...

All the while, Guren Zanpaku gave an ominous red glow…

The scarlet glow of the blade began to brighten as Sasuke had begun spinning it faster and faster. Yoroi, who kept his distance from Sasuke was quick to recognize the glow as a danger sign, the masked ninja cursed and had to attack before Sasuke could throw that thing.

In an instant, Sasuke had thrown the blade, the blade making a straight line and a dust clouds at its wake, flew towards Yoroi who dodged it in time.

Sasuke was quick to notice the dodge in time, as his eyes trailed to Yoroi, the blade seemingly changed directions as it headed back to Yoroi.

Naruto nodded, this was one of Guren Zanpaku's ability, and he called it jiseki (trace) as it literally homed in on the opponent.

To Naruto, Guren Zanpaku was a useless weapon, it was weaker than Tachikaze, wasn't as long range as Gufuu no Te, and was a mere test for his remaining weapons, it was the very first weapon he had ever created. It had a tracing capability and almost unimaginable reach, but it was useless if he couldn't keep up and know what the enemy was thinking.

It was a weapon meant for counters but with Naruto's style of fighting, it was near impossible to use its second ability.

The streak of red light danced like a wisp as it traced Yoroi down, with the sunglass wearing ninja avoiding most of its strikes, but few managed to chip the man by the shoulders and torso, one almost sliced his head off but his head tilt managed to only cut his cheek. The streak of red light glowed as it followed Yoroi around, Sasuke, then appeared right beside Yoroi, whose attention was focused on the scarlet blade, the last Uchiha gave a thunderous punch to Yoroi's cheek forcing him back. Yoroi staggered back but regained his footing; he refused to be defeated by some rookie! He outstretched his left arm back, a sound of metal cutting flesh was heard as Yoroi caught Sasuke by the neck of his shirt, Sasuke was quick to notice that the trace ability had connected, he cursed, is it the only thing Guren Zanpaku have!?

Yoroi snarled in pain as his left hand was pierced by the scarlet blade but with the blade incapacitated, the Uchiha no longer has an advantage in range. With a quick follow up, his right hand started to glow and absorb the chakra from Sasuke. Yoroi, who knew his height and strength advantage, lifted up Sasuke as he started draining the boy's chakra. Sasuke cursed as his chakra was being sucked, he would not be the one to be stepped on in his quest for power!

He looked around, he saw Naruto who was leaning against the rails, no sign of emotion on his face, the blonde was giving the message to figure everything out on his own, he looked to the left and saw the stoic face of the red headed Gaara who was crossing his arms and not giving a care. It was then that he noticed the sand jinchuuriki's eyes as it seemed to give him the message,

_Is this your worth? Pathetic…_

An image of his brother was seen behind the sand jinchuuriki as Sasuke gritted his teeth in anger, no one dares to judge him! He is an Uchiha, the elite of the elite, the pinnacle of what exactly is a true shinobi, his Sharingan eyes then looked at Yoroi once more…

The third Tomoe finally appeared on both eyes, signalling its complete evolution.

He grabbed Yoroi's arm that was holding with his left as Sasuke took excerpts from his bastard of a brother,

"Before these eyes, all your abilities are useless."

Sasuke then twisted the arm with merely his left hand, forcing Yoroi to bend down. Sasuke, now had his feet on the ground, kneed Yoroi straight to the face, forcing the man to let go, Sasuke retracted Guren Zanpaku's blade from Yoroi, forcing the man to flinch from the pain, a mule kick to the chest and Yoroi took a few steps back, Sasuke then held Guren Zanpaku with his two hands, twisting the handle in the middle.

Sasuke remembered Naruto's words as he descended that flight of stairs earlier,

"_You want to know Guren Zanpaku's abilities? Then solve this puzzle, the power of the mind is greater than the power of jutsu, it extends to knowledge that once solved, anything is possible. The first puzzle, is to break down the tower in the middle that supports the beam."_

The said weapon began breaking down, as Sasuke separated the now, twin hilts that was the base form of Guren Zanpaku, the angled blade on his left hand snapped down as the hilt pushed Sasuke's hand, away from the blade, the blade extended as it began to form a circle shape, forming a shield the size of Sasuke's head, the stick on his right hand, glowed in blue light, as it stretched far from the hilt to the ground, the ground was pierced by the luminous, formless blade.

Up in the stands, Naruto said with a grin, "Ni no Ryuu: Taiyou to Tsuki (First Form: Sun and Moon)"

Sasuke looked at the shield as he saw the seals of 'Rensa (Chain)' and 'Jizou (Spike)'

Sasuke touched both seals with his left right hand and out came spikes that protruded from the edge of the shield, a chain connected to the base of the centre of the shield and to the handle and Sasuke grinned.

The last Uchiha flung the weapon straight to Yoroi who dodged the attack by jumping up, the said chakra leech cursed as he looked down to the last Uchiha,

Not only had the Uchiha regained his advantage in range again, but also increased his proficiency in close range!

Sasuke spun the weapon around him as it gave a fan like sound the winds rustled on the floor of the arena as Sasuke retracted the bladed shield and jumped straight to Yoroi, chakra blade drawn.

Yoroi cursed as he was trapped in midair, the force of the Uchiha had him caught. As he descended to the floor, he narrowly dodged the vertical slice sent at him by Sasuke.

It was then that timed seemed to slow down as Yoroi was inconveniently trapped when the bladed shield had extended and coiled around the unsuspecting man, both fighters landed on the ground as Sasuke said to Yoroi, his Sharingan eyes spinning

"Surrender." Was only Sasuke's statement, Yoroi looked unfazed by the Uchiha's demand.

A few more minutes of silence and Sasuke received his answer,

"No." Was only Yoroi's reply.

Sasuke smirked, fine then, he'll receive this punishment, as he bit the chains, Sakura recognized the technique

"Hey, it's that jutsu he used on that snake freak from the second test…" Sakura said, Naruto raised an eyebrow as Sasuke ended it in a Tora seal

"Katon: Ryuka no Jutsu! (Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique)"

Fire seemed to explode from Sasuke as it traced itself on the chain in a fast motion engulfing the target in smouldering flames, Yoroi cried out as the flames surrounded him and began to eat him away. A water jutsu from Kakashi had stopped the display of carnage as Yoroi passed out from the pain.

Up in the stands, Gaara's eyes widened from the scream of anguish, his bloodlust was rising. He looked at the people that were around him, his mother tempting him to spill their blood, he held his head tightly, as the flow of Shukaku's words were driving him mad…

Down below, Hayate had checked on Yoroi and looked at the crowd as he raised his hand.

"Winner of the fifth match, Uchiha Sasuke."

As Sasuke walked up the stairs of the bleachers, he was met by a clearly upset Naruto, such was his feeling of anger when Sasuke had displayed no inhibitions, to Naruto, it seemed to form an all too chilling progress from the Uchiha, it wasn't the cursed seal that was implanting the suggestions…

The suggestions were being implanted from Sasuke's own conscious thought, such ill regard to the responsibilities in obtaining such a weapon was something that sent Naruto to a wake up call; he needed to put Sasuke under control.

"I didn't give you Guren Zanpaku so that you could kill him Sasuke."

The Uchiha sneered at that and remarked to the blonde, "But I didn't."

Naruto shook his head, as his anger spiked up and turned to fury as killing intent seemed to pour out of the blonde's eyes, "He was lucky! That Katon technique you did would have been more than enough to burn him to the ground. "

The blonde then continued, "The next time you do shit like this again Sasuke, or even worse if you try to betray Konoha and its ideals… I'll kill you myself, mercilessly."

Sasuke seemed to shiver at that seeing the blonde's almost calm and unwavering threat, Ino took a step back as the tension between Naruto and Sasuke began to rise.

It was then that the names began randomizing again, as it begun to check out the remaining fighters, all of them looked anxious, except for Gaara and Neji who looked at the screen with an aloof expression.

The screen had stopped, and ended with the names…

Abumi Zaku VS Aburame Shino.

Shino quietly left the stands and descended into the arena below, his enemy, who had a bandage and a sling on his right arm looked at the sunglasses boy that hid his lower mouth, his hands in his pockets.

"Fifth match of the preliminaries, Abumi Zaku VS Aburame Shino, begin!"

At that shout, Hayate stepped back as Shino's hands went out of his pockets. The boy raised his right hand and adjusted his sunglasses, carefully looking at Zaku and said, "Are you disgracing me with fighting a handicap?"

The boy asked, not a hint of emotion in his voice,

"Though I commend your spirit to fight against me in such a manner, I am the one with the advantage right now, why? Take a look at your back…"

Zaku looked at his back and saw thousands of bugs that littered around the floor, Zaku stood agape at the massive colonies of insects slowly creeping their way towards him.

"It is said that in the rule of fighting, you must always have an ace up your sleeve." Said Shino as he slowly pointed to Zaku

"Choose… Face my insects, or face me."

Shino's hand outstretched, bugs began to come out of his sleeves and from his neck.

Zaku seemed intimidated

Shino was not one to waste time, to him, efficiency is a thing of utmost importance, logic was his guide in fighting, unlike Shikamaru, Shino wasn't as smart, but he made up for it by showing more effort in his work, though he barely shows it. And unlike Naruto, Shino would rather stick first to the basics than advancing further, to him, the basics were the foundations of everything, it held a general idea to lead in situations, and it was his ideas that made team eight mostly survive throughout their excursions in the Forest of Death.

Up in the bleachers, the blonde member of Team Seven looked on in half interest as he said, "Shino's got this in the bag."

Kiba smirked and said, "You know your stuff blondie."

"Shut up, this is just as obvious to me as is to you, Shino's not one to take things half-assed like Shikamaru over there." To this he picked his nose and flung the revolting projectile straight to the pineapple headed boy.

"And unlike Shikamaru, Shino takes initiative and most of the time, his victims falls into his hands."

Kurenai seemed proud at Shino, what teacher wouldn't? Shino was, ideally anyway, a good embodiment of what a shinobi should be, logical, decisive and quick. To him, whatever works best, applies.

He wasn't as analytical as Shikamaru who was more or less better served for strategic tactics, nor was he theoretical like Naruto who was a master of seals and put all of his things to practice. No, Shino was someone in the middle, a jack of all trades one might say.

"Who the hell do you think you are? You think I'm helpless just because I can only use one arm?" Zaku exclaimed, as he forcefully lifted his broken arm, aiming his good arm at the horde of insects, and then aimed his broken right arm at Shino.

Zaku bit his lip from the pain, blood coming out of his lips as he endured the painful opening of his broken hand.

He began to breathe heavily, just maintaining that posture for long when his arm was injured was taking a toll, but Zaku persevered, the pain in his arm was not enough compared to the pain of scurrying the streets with no food and shelter.

Zaku grinned, that smile escaping his lips as he said to the boy with the sunglasses,

"You said that in a fight, you need to have an ace up your sleeve right?"

Shino remained silent, as if there was nothing to tell to the oto nin…

Zaku then turned his eyes to Shino whose hands remained in his pockets.

"Looks like I got a better hand…" Said Zaku as he pumped chakra to his palms

"Zankuuha! (Air Slicing Wave)"

Zaku expected the blast of air to come out of his palms; he expected the wind to blast the bug boy and his pets to oblivion.

But what he felt, was a very painful outbursts of chakra coming from every tenketsu on his arms, the chakra seemed to go out small geysers as they shot out, earning a powerful yelp of pain from Zaku. It was then that Shino had advanced in a blink of an eye, immediately closing the gap between him and Zaku. Shino unleashed a right straight on Zaku's cheek that sent him tumbling towards the path of insects, Zaku looked at him in shock as he asked the Aburame.

"Y-You… How did…?"

Shino, with the his aloof disposition replied in monotone, "Before you could have even prepared in opening that broken hand of yours, I capitalized on that opening and sent a swarm of insects straight to those chakra holes, plugging them shut."

"You were too busy ignoring your pain that you failed to notice my swarm had already closed that gap."

Shino then turned on his back as he said,

"I have the better hand."

With that, Zaku's chakra was consumed by the insects as the said Oto Nin began screaming in horror.

"Winner of the sixth match, Aburame Shino!"

Not much was to be said from Shino after letting his bugs consume Zaku almost bone dry of his chakra, as the next set of fighters began to be reeled in, Naruto looked forth at the sound Jounin that was smiling ever since the match between Sasuke and Yoroi.

The man remained unnoticed by the rest, as the blonde began to hold the handle bars in restraint.

That smile reminded him of that smirk that the Snake Sannin made in front of him, he had never forgotten that smile, that grin that made him remember that snake bastard, it was menacing, unsettling, _mocking_.

Naruto was barely able to keep his anger in check, as he struggled not to initiate an assault on the man, for fear of incidents that he didn't want to happen, he made a mental note to himself that he needed to report to the Hokage of someone infiltrating the preliminary exams, such an enemy slinking this deep in the village meant one thing,

An inside job.

Some bastard infiltrated Konoha, or someone from Konoha that defected went past the security or worse, someone in a high ranking position were giving away Konoha's defensive countermeasures and strategic locations.

Such a deep infiltration during a high security state event meant one thing,

Full Scale Invasion.

The blonde cursed, he had not realized it sooner, a list of the most powerful members of the ANBU would have probably been handed out already, along with the possibility of potential threats and that meant him being included in the list due to his very important status as a member of Konoha's military force.

His thoughts were interrupted when the names of the next set of fighters came up,

Inuzuka Kiba VS Sabaku no Kankurou

Kiba nodded in a serious expression as he jumped down from the bleachers and landed on the floor below, the one with the giant… Something on his back walked down the stairs apparently cradling his head as he smirked, "Heh, never thought I'd be up for somewhat a challenge."

Kiba gave a feral grin and said to the puppet user, "Watch it make up boy, or you'll be using vanishing creams in areas you don't want it on."

Kankurou seemed unfazed as he unloaded the pack of his puppet down and grabbed it by the end of the white cloth wrapped around, his left arm on the top of the puppet's still clothed body.

"My, my, I do hope that mouth of yours is more bite than bark, it would be a shame if I impale you with Karasu's blades early on."

That seemed to bring a smile on Kiba's face as he crouched down and placed his hands in the hitsuji seal.

"Trust me, after this is over, you wish you'd have taken a plastic surgery, not that you don't need one right now."

Kankurou grew irate at that, if the vein bulging at the back of his head was showing, "The hell is that? Okay that's it; you're going to be a new pin cushion for Karasu."

With that, he unfurled the puppet from his side as he let go of his left hand, and seams of chakra strings began appearing at the edge of his fingertips,

"Ninpo: Kugutsu no Jutsu (Ninja Art: Puppetry Skill)"

Kiba added salt to the wound, "What? Got your pride hurt? Well, might as well give you an apology, what would you like? A marionette or a blow up doll?"

That seemed to bring another level of anger from Suna's puppeteer,

"You are so dead."

Kiba then looked serious as he handed activated his Shikyaku no Jutsu (Four Legs Technique)

"Bring it, puppet boy!"

Kiba then gave Akamaru a red soldier pill,

"Akamaru, we're going to be double teaming this creep, you ready?"

The dog gave a single bark for confirmation and Kiba tossed him the pill,

"Gijuu Ninpo: Juujin Bunshin! (Beast Mimicry Ninja Art: Beast Man Clone)"

With that command, Akamaru transformed in a plume of smoke, revealing a clone of kiba, crouched down with his arms crossing each other,

"Let's go!"

With that Hayate had initiated the battle.

In an immediate burst of speed, Kiba and Akamaru dashed at a surprised Kankurou, who jumped back and shielded himself with Karasu pulling out some blades from the said puppet's torso that made Kiba and his pet think twice about slashing through the puppet, both Ninja and Ninja dog jumped to the side as Karasu spun around like a top.

Kiba smirked as both he and his partner dashed towards Kankurou, in a near zigzag pattern.

Kankurou glanced back and forth his mind being confused by the pattern of the dog and its master's footwork.

'_Shit!'_

The kabuki nin cursed inwardly, jumping as again as both opponents closed the gap, Karasu was still retreating, almost unable to keep up with the speed of Kiba and his pet.

As Kankurou dodged another blow by jumping up, Karasu was dragged into the air as well, Kiba grinned as he jumped after Kankurou, with Akamaru jumping straight upwards,

"Tsuuga!"

Kiba spun much like Karasu did only this time, Kiba spun faster as he looked like a torrential torpedo about to slam and drill through the puppeteer, Kankurou put Karasu close to him and then stepped on its back, with a push with his feet, the puppet was used as a platform to dodge the drilling Kiba as the said boy sailed past Kankurou only to be surprised when he felt to slashes across his back…

Marks of a savage animal slashing Kankurou on the back was proof as Kiba's pet, descended below landing on all fours as Kankurou fell on the ground, With Kiba clung to the ceiling observing down below.

"This isn't over." Said Kiba, but stopped when he saw the prone form of Kankurou drizzled down into a form of sand.

"Tch… Knew it was a replacement, he must have done it when he kicked the puppet a while back…"

Kiba's sense of smell immediately kicked in as he jumped to the side avoiding Karasu's attack, forcing him to land on the floor below, he then ordered his pet,

"Akamaru! You know what to do!"

It was then that the pet obeyed his master, as it began sniffing the ground below, it looked around as it then located the scent of its target. Kiba, unknown to Kankurou, distracted the puppet master as Akamaru began to dash silently and neared to the giant hand seal statue and the dog spun around, piercing through rock and then almost hitting Kankurou who was hiding behind the statue. Kiba grinned as he landed on the floor dashing behind Akamaru.

Kankurou then cursed as the pet pierced through the tunnel with its own piercing fang, Kankurou sidestepped, barely hitting him by the skin of his teeth, until he realized Kiba was already on top of him, his own piercing fang activated

"Gatsuuga! (Double Piercing Fang)"

With a sudden burst of explosion courtesy of flying debris, Kiba appeared standing in the cloud of smoke his silhouette was ever present along with his pet dog, on the floor, was a knocked out Kankurou.

Naruto studied Kiba for a moment and realized why the boy had won.

"Kiba had a weapon that was his key to taking down Kankurou. It's his ability to pick up scents. He immediately discerned Kankurou's scent with the puppet and then used Akamaru, who's better in tracking scents to find the hiding Kankurou. Pretty impressive actually, he used his advantage of tracking and double teaming quite nicely."

"Winner of the match, Inuzuka Kiba!"

To this, Kiba jumped for joy along with his pet, as Kankurou was taken to the medical bay, As Kiba was ascending up, he felt his feet suddenly losing control and fell down.

"Kiba!" Kurenai shouted, she jumped down and looked at the boy for any signs of injuries, a small cut on Kiba's shoulder.

"Poison, most likely a neurotoxin, it seemed like he got cut when he was on the ceiling narrowly being cut. It's either the poison is slow acting or Kiba's rush made him ignore the pain." Mentioned Naruto, obviously, he had done his fair share of studying puppeteer ninjas, in that they rely on all those jack-in-the-box type of weapons that was like the uncle that you didn't want, it keeps appearing in parties that you know are going to kill you. Puppeteers were ambush tacticians, they relied on the surprise of the weapons hidden compartments around the puppet.

To Naruto, Puppets are only limited to a fight for only so much. If all the weapons had been revealed in a fight, then it was over, the puppet would become terribly predictable, giving the opponent the chance for the opponent to dodge and counterattack.

Quickly, the medics from the medical bay tended to Kiba putting him on a stretcher and taking him to the emergency department.

Another selection of fighters began to be randomized with the flash on the screen…

It was a match that the others had never foreseen off… To this, the Jounins cringed in worry, as the names were flashed before the screen,

Hyuuga Neji vs Hyuuga Hinata

Kurenai looked on to her charge in worry, as she said to the meek girl, "It's alright. You don't have to fight him if you don't want to…"

Hinata looked worried at Kurenai and then to Naruto who was staring intently down at Neji as if there was something within the blonde that was making him boil in absolute rage.

No. She shouldn't be scared… She had promised, she had promised to change herself! And right now, right in front of the boy that she admired, she would do anything for that approval!

As she approached down on the arena floor below, she looked rather hesitant in front of her cousin.

"I suggest you surrender now, your fate has been decided Hinata-sama." Neji said in monotone, as Hinata seemed to stop, as she stared into those icy white eyes that carried an inner hatred.

"You do not stand a chance against me, even if you were to put an effort, as of right now, you won't be able to put up a fight, much more a challenge."

Up in the bleachers, Naruto was getting furious, that bastard was berating Hinata! He hated people like them, loathed them with a passion, as he looked at Sasuke who remained indifferent, Naruto was looking in contempt, the grip on the handle bars were tightening the pressure applied on it was slowly crumpling from Naruto's anger.

Down below, Hinata was now starting to feel her nervousness catching up, she was slowly starting to tremble, as despair was now catching up within her. Her habits were resurfacing.

"The way you put your finger in your mouth, it shows your uncertainty, you are beginning to be afraid. You're heavy breathing is a sign of fear, you want to run, but you feel that you can't."

To this, Neji stared Hinata straight in the eye, "I feel the need to tell you this Hinata-sama; you are a failure."

As if a sword had driven into her heart, the Hyuuga Heiress stood stunned, as she began to see the image of her father from behind Neji.

_You are useless… Get out of my sight!_

Such fear made Hinata step back further

_No… No… No! Stop… Don't continue anymore!_

Her inner self was crying now as Neji took a step forward, his unwavering gaze upon his relative

"Useless trash, you are the symbol of the Hyuuga clan's shame, quit now before you give the main house anymore dishonour. A failure, will always be a failure, for it is fate. These eyes, they see everything, they do not lie."

Naruto finally had enough.

"Don't you dare…"

He muttered, his voice growing louder as he stared at Neji, he shouted to the older Hyuuga, the blonde's eyes becoming darker, as hatred began filling him…

"DON'T YOU DARE TREAT HINATA LIKE SOME OBJECT, YOU SCUM! IF YOU BERATE HER ANYMORE, AFTER THIS MATCH IS OVER, RULES OR NOT, I WILL MAKE SURE YOU PAY FOR CALLING HER A FAILURE!"

Neji looked in disdain, such barbaric behaviour of a wiped out clan,

"Meddling fool… No wonder your clan was wiped out, must be a family full of failures unable to produce a shinobi that could control their powers…"

It was then that Naruto's voice grew Icy cold, _**"What?"**_

His voice had been from one with anger, to absolute loathing as his eyes grew as cold and as murderous as Gaara's. The jinchuuriki of the One Tail smiled gleefully at Naruto's expression.

"Neji!"

The older Hyuuga turned around, meeting with the stern gaze of Maito Gai.

"Focus on your match."

"HINATA! PROVE HIM WRONG! DON'T LET HIM DEEM YOU A FAILURE, KICK HIS ASS!"

Hinata seemed to snap out of her fear suddenly as she looked up at the blonde, his focus was on Neji, and in his eyes, it showed all of the contempt that Naruto had held back against Neji.

She knew Naruto was not one to hold back his compulsions, by chance, Hinata saw that Naruto wanted to channel his anger to Hinata, beating Neji would bring that satisfaction to himself and to hers as well.

"No… I won't run away… I don't want to run anymore." She said, a strong resolve exiting her voice, no more was her stutter, as it now was replaced with one thing,

Confidence.

In her resolve she looked at Neji, "Neji-niisan… I won't back down."

Neji smirked, his arrogance now showing, "I am going to enjoy this…"

Hinata then began concentrating as she used the same handsigns that activated her Doujutsu (Eye Technique)

"Byakugan!" Hinata shouted, as veins began to bulge around the outer axis of her eyes, Neji doing the same

Both fighters then assumed the Gentle Fist stance

"Eighth Match, Hyuuga Neji vs Hyuuga Hinata! Begin!"

In that very moment, the fighters dashed at each other.

As they met head on, their right arms outstretched at each other, as they both aimed it at their opponent.

Both hands hitting their respective palms, the force of chakra repulsing each other created a small shockwave around the two fighters, as the hands were both parried away, Neji took initiative and extended his left arm, aiming for Hinata's cheek, Hinata ducked and gave a swiping upward palm, Neji raised his chin slightly making the heiress miss her target, she turned around and gave a forceful straight palm at Neji, who sidestepped and delivered another palm, this time straight to Hinata's chest.

To many that watched, it looked like a choreographed set of moves, like a very graceful dance, as both fighters switched with their foot work and both trying to land a blow on each other, for Jyuuken meant one blow was equivalent to early incapacitation.

Hinata leaned back, the blow barely touching her, she then parried with her left hand and struck another palm strike straight at Neji's abdomen. Neji parried the blow as began to reach out with his left with a straight Palm thrust, this time to Hinata's shoulder, Hinata countered parrying it with her own hand but surprised Neji, when she resulted to slide her left leg to his left side, and allowed Neji's extended hand to pass through, missing Hinata by a mile. Neji stumbled, as he looked at Hinata who was now aiming to strike his side, Neji gritted his teeth.

This fool… This, worthless failure! How dare she sully his art!

With a sudden movement, this time in anger, Neji had dodged the blow by ducking under Hinata's outstretched hand, and with his right hand closed except for the middle and index finger, she hit Hinata's forearm. Forcing pain through Hinata making her stagger, and a straight palm…

A lethal strike to the chest.

Hinata coughed up blood, as she staggered back, Neji held Hinata's outstretched arm, and slid the sleeve up, revealing somewhat bruised spots on her skin… Kakashi had immediately recognized them

"I-Impossible… At such a young age… He can see the Tenketsu points!?"

Naruto seemed surprised as well, his eyes widening as he saw below, that indeed, Neji had struck Hinata on the forearm with two fingers, on a common pressure point, to where, theoretically, the tenketsu lay.

"Tenketsu… This is the first time that I've heard of it…" Ino said, Naruto answered,

"The tenketsu are points in which chakra is expelled, the body currently has three hundred and sixty one, tenketsu points in the body, theoretically, once you hit one of these points with the right amount of chakra, you could control how the flow of chakra goes to the body, by either opening it fully, or closing it. Blocking the passageway renders the part of the body useless to deliver any chakra."

"I-I'm not giving up…" Hinata muttered,

Hearing those words, Neji then pushed the girl away and delivered another palm strike to the Hyuuga girl's face. Hinata fell down as she was thrown back by the blow on the ground, Neji turned his back from the girl, showing his disrespect, he said to the proctor,

"This is over, proctor, call the match."

Hayate was about to call the match, Naruto objected,

"Don't! She's still standing!"

Pointed the blonde to Hinata, who was cradling her sore arm and breathing heavily, the chakra pathways to her heart were damaged and to an extent was the natural pacemaker, the sinoatrial node. It was sending irregular impulses to her heart, but Hinata's strong will still made her stand.

"I-I'm not giving up… I don't take back my words; it's my ninja way…"

Her breathing was haggard; she could barely lift her chin to face Neji.

The said Hyuuga prodigy looked on in disbelief, as the heiress still had the will to stand after such a vicious blow…

"Give up, Hinata-sama… Stand down. Don't suffer anymore." Was his firm reply, turning his back again, this time, Hinata said to Neji,

"D-Don't… tell me that… Y-you've been suffering too… I can see it in your eyes, all that pain that you try to suppress… M-My eyes can see everything… T-they do not lie…"

This failure… How dare she!?

She was insulting his pride! No one dares to sully his pride!

"You…"

Will die…

"No! The match has already been decided!" Hayate shouted, about to intervene, that sudden flow of killing intent filled the room, it was enough to startle the Jounin and began to jump

With a sudden burst of speed, Neji rushed towards Hinata, about to deliver a straight fatal strike to the heart, about to sever the chakra passageways to the heart completely.

But not before something happened, a dark blur pushed him back, to the opposite wall, nailing him there as his arms outstretched like being crucified, It was then that Naruto had appeared in front of him, wearing a dark tattered coat, as inside it was scarlet red as his forearms were covered in bandages.

But what caught his attention, were Naruto's eyes, they were as black as black as the starless night, overwhelming contempt and loathing was within him, he had changed form once again, but this time, compared to his first one earlier, the tattered coat didn't have that mane around the neck area, and the overwhelming force seemed to multiply.

But what startled the Hyuuga Prodigy, was the madness and released inhibitions from his eyes, as he felt he had foreseen his death…

As Neji stared into Naruto's dark eyes, his collar was held by Naruto's left arm, his right arm posed to deliver a punch, but not before being stopped by Kakashi,

"Stop, Naruto, it isn't worth it."

Naruto looked at Kakashi for a second, Kakashi froze, the emotion that the blonde was portraying, it was the same as the one that he had seen a few years back…

'_His face looked like the time when Itachi was driven mad… This isn't good…'_

Naruto loosened his grip on Neji's clothes as the said Hyuuga adjusted his clothes smugly and went upstairs but not before Naruto could make a point.

"**RRAAAHHHH!"**

Naruto punched the wall behind Neji with all his might, as ten meters in height of the solid four inch concrete wall shattered under the force of Naruto's blow. He eyed Neji, his contempt was still present as Naruto heard the medics taking the Hyuuga heiress away, before she could suffer a cardiac arrest.

Naruto pointed to Neji and then said, still in his dark form, "When you face me at the finals, I won't show any mercy as you did with Hinata, I'll cripple you, teme. Nobody deserves to be called useless trash."

Neji for the first time, could feel the nervousness coming from him in strides, the sweat on his brow was proof enough.

With that, Neji went upstairs, wary, and for the first time, fear had encompassed his heart.

Gai looked on to the small blonde child that went the opposite direction and climbed up the stairs his form reverting back to that tattered orange jumpsuit.

'_Neji has unleashed a monster… May kami-sama help us all…'_

To be continued…

* * *

Update! Team Eight spotlight for the moment and a glimpse of one of Naruto's elemental transformations. All will be explained about it as the story progresses and the mystery of Uzumaki clan unravels.

* * *

Jutsu List:

Katon: Housenka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Mythical Fire Flower Skill) C-Rank, rapid fire, fireballs, no smaller than a baseball, not as powerful as Goukakyou no Jutsu but faster and more accurate.

Katon: Ryuuka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Dragon Fire Skill) C-Rank, a move that follows the trail of the attached binding object to the opponent.

Zankuuha (Air Slicing Wave) C-Rank, Special jutsu, kind of like a hijutsu except not that exclusive just requiring an equipment, the chakra is converted to sonic waves that blast an opponent in high pressure.

Shikayaku no Jutsu (Four Legs Technique)- Supplementary C-rank, mimics a four legged mammal and increases speed and claws grow as well as the incisors or fangs. Family jutsu, exclusive to the Inuzuka Clan.

Gijuu Ninpo: Juujin Bunshin (Animal Mimicry Ninja Art: Beast-Man Clone) any Ninken can do this as long as they are given a special soldier pill. The partner Ninken transforms into the form of its owner as well as the activation of Shikyaku no Jutsu. Family Jutsu, exclusive to the Inuzuka Clan.

Tsuuga (Piercing Fang) Taijutsu/Ninjutsu based attack, where the user becomes like a drill, spinning in a very fast motion. It is powerful enough to dig through holes. Family Jutsu, exclusive to the Inuzuka Clan.

Gatsuuga (Double Piercing Fang) Taijutsu/Ninjutsu attack, a doubled piercing fang, basically doubles power. Family Jutsu, exclusive to the Inuzuka Clan.

Guren Zanpaku, First two forms

Ichi no Shiki: Rensa Mikadzuki (First Form: Chained Half moon), The default form of Guren Zanpaku, a kusarigama with a handle and a chain.

Ni no shiki: Taiyou to Tsuki (Second Form: Sun and Moon) Second form, sword and shield, the sword is a chakra based sword and the shield can be used as an offense weapon as well as defence.

More forms will be explained and revealed in future chapters

* * *

Chapter Preview:

"_I will show to you, the fruits of my hard work! Hachimon Tonkou! Daichimon Kaimon! Kai! (Eight Gates Relase, First Gate, Limit Gate, Release!)"_

"_This technique that I have worked hard and persevered day and night, This will be my trump card! Omote Renge! (Primary Lotus)"_

_In that moment, the whirling spinning death descended into the floor below planting the opponent's head into the ground floor._

_Everything he had done… He had exceeded…_

Next Chapter: Into the Belly of the Beast…


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